Mass Effect: Man of Steel
by DarkAvenger001
Summary: What if the explosion of Krypton wasn't natural? What if Kal-El's escape pod didn't go to Earth? This is that story.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Last Son Turned Farmer

On the planet Krypton, a certain man walked into his home and slammed the door behind himself before sighing.

"Well, Jor-El? Did they believe you?" a woman asked her husband as he came into their shared home, hoping it wasn't as bad as he appeared.

The man, Jor-El, sighed again and shook his head, "I'm afraid not, Lara. The Council wouldn't believe me, even after I showed them the data. Though, I cannot say that I blame them, the whole situation still seems insane to me as well."

"Then, what shall we do?" Lara asked.

"For now, the only thing we can do is continue to build escape pods for the people. Thus far, only one has been finished. Brainiac, how long until the rest are finished?" Jor-El asked the AI that acted like his assistant and the caretaker of the house.

"The remaining pods will require three more days to be completed," the AI said in his emotionless tone, "Also, I have detected unknown energy signatures in orbit over Krypton."

"What!?" Jor-El yelled before running outside and seeing three massive squid-like ships descending from the sky, "No, we're too late."

A loud, artificial voice rang from one of the ships, "KRYPTONIANS, YOU HAVE GONE AGAINST THE SET PATH. YOU WILL BE DESTROYED SO THAT YOU DO NOT DISRUPT THE ORDER OF THE CYCLE OF DESTRUCTION. DO NOT RESIST. IT IS FUTILE. WE ARE THE VANGUARDS OF THIS GALAXY'S DESTRUCTION," with the ending of this ultimatum, the ships started firing massive destructive beams, destroying entire city blocks with single attack.

"By Rao, they weren't supposed to be here so soon!" Jor-El shouted in horror.

"What do we do!?" Lara asked, clutching their infant child close to her, like her embrace could protect her son from the beams.

Jor-El looked at her before turning his attention to the infant in her arms and saying solemnly, "The only thing we can do." With that, he pulled his wife with the infant crying in her arms and they both got into the family personal transport vehicle.

With Jor-El piloting the hover vehicle, he set a course towards his lab, moving at an extremely fast pace. Lara looked out the window to see the situation was getting even worse. The armed forces tried to launch a counterattack against the massive ships, but they responded by launching drones that devastated their forces. The situation only got worse as lava began to spurt from the wounds in the crust.

Jor-El saw this with a horrified expression on his face, "It's as bad as I thought it'd be."

"Why? What's going on, Jor-El?" Lara asked, somehow managed to get even more worried.

"From my studies, our planet's core make-up, namely the minerals that make it up, is unique and it seems the energy of those beams is reacting to the minerals."

"What does that mean!?" Lara asked, beginning to panic.

"According to my calculations, our planet will explode in about twenty minutes," Jor-El explained in sorrow.

Lara sat the rest of the ride in horrified silence. When they got to the lab, Jor-El led his wife and infant child to the door, which, by order of Jor-El in case of this situation, had been sealed to all except the scientist.

When they reached the destination, the only escape pod that had been finished, Lara realized what her husband had in mind. "You want to send our child into the galaxy alone!? Who knows what kind of danger he will face!"

"We have no choice, Lara, my love. I've found a planet that seems to contain a species similar in appearance to ours. He will be able to live among them," Jor-El said as he took the infant from his wife to place him in the escape pod.

"But if they find out what he is, they kill him!"

"They won't be able to. He will be as a god among them," Jor-El said, much to the confusion of his wife, "Besides, he won't be alone. Brainiac 2.0, are you downloaded into the pod?"

"Yes, Jor-El. I am completely uploaded to the pod's database, along with the information that you have requested."

"Do you have all of the protocols uploaded into your matrix?"

"Affirmative."

"Good, prepare for launch and do so as soon as you are done," Jor-El said as he opened the launch doors for the pod, "Your mission will be to protect and aid my son in his exploits. Do you understand and accept these orders?"

"Yes, Jor-El," the AI said.

A few seconds after the launch doors were open, the pod's engine activated and took off.

"Will he be alright?" Lara asked.

"His life won't be easy, but he is destined to accomplish great things," Jor-El said, as he pulled his wife into his arms, "I know our son will succeed. He will end the cycle."

"Good," Lara said with a smile, seconds before the entire building was completely destroyed by one of the massive ships.

The pod's escaping the destruction and the atmosphere didn't go completely undetected by the ships as one of them gave chase.

It communicated with the pod, clearly unaware the only occupant was an infant, "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE YOUR DESTINED DESTRUCTION! YOU WILL PERISH WITH THE REST OF YOUR KIND!"

As the large ship fired at the pod, Brainiac took control to make it dodge and ensure its survival. After chasing the pod for a few minutes, the large ship detected a large energy surge before the planet it had just been attacking exploded in a massive blast. Once its attention was off of the pod, Brainaic activated the cryo-sleep of the pod and activated the hyperdrive to head towards its chosen destination. Realizing its comrades were destroyed in the blast and its target was gone, it headed to the nearby Mass Relay to escape the blast. It had no fear of the rest of the galaxy's organics finding this place as the Relay was going to be destroyed as well.

As the pod traveled, Brainiac calculated that a meteor will move into the pod's trajectory, so he decided to change to the secondary destination. It would take longer, especially since the pod didn't have enough fuel to continue its hyperdrive system.

Six years later, on the planet of Mindoir, a husband and wife were driving in an old car heading towards their farm in the agricultural district, nicknamed 'Smallville' after a town back on Earth. The couple, John and Martha Shepard, both had depressed expressions on their faces. They'd just come from a clinic, where they discovered that Martha was sterile, a medical issue that modern technology still couldn't fix.

"Martha, it's not the end of the world. There are still other ways of having children besides the usual way," John said trying to reassure his beloved wife.

"I know," she said sighing, "It's, it's just that I've always wanted a child."

"I know, Martha, I ju-what's that!?" John exclaimed, pointing at what appeared to be an incoming meteorite.

The flaming ball of light flew over them and crashed into their cornfield. John slammed on the brakes and they got out of it to head to the crash site and investigate. When they found what ever it was that crashed, they found a pod of a make that they didn't recognize from their times as Alliance Naval officers. The pod opened up and inside they found an infant child, a baby boy. Martha picked the small baby out of the pod to hold it in her arms. The husband and wife looked at each other, both silently deciding what to do with the child.

Twelve years later, a thirteen year old child was tinkering with the family tractor. He activated his omni-tool, where one of his closest friends was located.

"Brainiac, could you bring up the specs for the tractor again?" the boy asked.

"Affirmative, Kal-El," the AI housed in his omni-tool replied, appearing as a screen with three green dots forming an upside-down triangle.

"Brainiac, you know you're supposed to call me by the name Ma and Pa gave me," the boy groaned.

"Apologies, Clark," Brainiac said.

Brainiac and Clark's parents had told him from the a young age that the Shepards found him in a pod and that they decided to raise him as their own son after Brainiac informed them of his birth parents' demise. They hid pod in a secret place beneath the barn, a place so secret that the most advanced scanners couldn't find it, due to the defenses they put into place. Brainiac also explained that a number of protocols were in place that kept him from accessing a great deal of information until certain conditions were met. As a result, Clark just knew who his birth parents were, what his birth name was, the name of his homeplanet, and that said planet was now nothing more than debris, though he didn't know why. Clark's adoptive parents taught him how to shoot with some civilian rifles and how to fight hand-to-hand after he'd said that he wanted to be an Alliance marine himself, just like his parents. Until then, he helped his parents on the farm when he wasn't at school. He was the designated Einstein due to his tutoring by Brainiac, but his work on the farm also kept him in shape, so no one ever tried picking on him. Clark actually liked working on the farm. He didn't know why but he always felt energized when he was in the bright sunlight. The Shepards were fine with their young son helping around the farm, especially with the tech-based issues, since Clark had a knack for it.

"Hmm, it's probably that darn fuel convertor again. Next time we're in town, we really need to get a new one," Clark muttered as he worked. When he was finished, he figured it allowed him a good couple of hours before his folks needed him, so he decided to take a walk.

He was walking down the street past the cornfields that were included in the Shepard family farm when he heard a loud crash down towards the bridge. Clark ran to investigate and found a school bus that must have been heading from the pre-school hanging off the edge of the bridge. Without thinking, Clark ran to the bus and grabbed the back end of the bus to keep it from tipping off of the bridge. He pulled on it as hard as he could. In his adrenaline-fueled mind, Clark was surprised to see that the bus was actually moving back towards the thirteen year old boy and his muscles weren't even feeling strained in the slightest. With one final pull, he managed to bring the front wheels of the bus onto the bridge.

He looked up at the bus windows to see the small children staring at him with expressions of awe and wonder.

"Clark, I believe we should make a swift escape before you are forced to answer questions that you do not have the answers to or cannot answer," Brainiac said.

"Yeah, uh, sure," Clark said, still uncertain as to what just happened.

He burst off running back to his home. He'd never run as fast as he was running now, the cornfields were blurs of yellow as he ran, a massive dust trail followed behind him. He managed to get back to the farmhouse in the course of a few seconds when it would have normally taken him almost an hour and he wasn't even winded. He felt like he could run ten times that length before he started breathing heavy.

"Brainiac, what's happening to me?" Clark said, frightened.

"Your biological father believed that the red sun, Rao, prevented the Kryptonians from using their full abilities and that a yellow sun could give the people unique abilities. He felt that a Kryptonian's body would act like a battery containing the energy of the yellow sun," the Kryptonian AI explained.

"Wow, uh, I should try these abilities out. Maybe I could find some use for them or at least make sure I don't accidently hug someone and break their spine," Clark said.

"An understandable worry," Brainiac said.

The next two years, Clark continued his normal life, while also learning the full extent of his powers. The first powers that he noticed was that every muscle in his body was improved so that it was superhumanly strong and the other was his superhuman speed. His dad, riding the bike he kept for the occasional ride, was willing to help him with the superspeed test. Even though he was driving at full speed on a straight road, Clark outran him with ease. He was able to lift the tractor with one hand. He also found his muscles in his respiratory system was superhumanly strong as well, which allowed him to literally blow someone off their feet. He also found that, at first, he could jump several meters into the air, but after a while, he found that he could glide, which later turned into full-blown flight. He later found that he could use a sort of x-ray vision that allowed him to see through solid objects and an actual laser from his eyes that could burn or even weld metal. His senses were also at a superhuman level. He kept his powers a secret from the other kids at school, even the few friends that he had, his friend, Lois, who was on the student paper, especially, since she could never keep a secret.

At this point in time, Clark was out of school for spring break and was once more fixing tractor when his father came out to talk to him.

"Clark, my boy, I need you to pack up some clothes for a trip. We're heading to Illium to get some of the new tech for the farm."

"Do I have to go, Pa? I'd rather just stay here."

"Oh, come on, Clark, you can't just do your schoolwork and chores and close yourself from the rest of it. You don't even hang out with your friends outside of school. This'll give you a chance to see something new. Who knows? You might meet a cute girl," his father teased, prodding his arm with his elbow, making Clark blush.

"I just prefer to be doing something productive," Clark said, "But I don't have any choice, do I?"

"Nope, now go start packing."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I just like to say thanks for everyone's kind reviews and am glad so many people are excited by this story.**

**Nomad-117**

**Yes, I have a romantic interest in mind, though I don't want to ruin it by telling who it is.**

**Everyone please review for any comments, concerns, or questions that you have.**

Chapter 2:

Farmer turned Soldier

A few days later, the father and son pair was in the Illium market with John discussing the price with the merchant.

After settling a price, John turned to his son and said, "Well, it'll take a while for them to transport the machines, so if you want, you can take a look around, but just stay out of the less populated areas and meet back at the landing pad in, say, three hours, alright?"

"Sure, Pa," Clark said before walking off.

Clark was walking for about an hour when his superhearing picked up someone calling for help. He ran down the alleyway that the call came from. When he reached a dead end, he found a human, a krogan, and a turian with their back to him, which he recognized from his studying of alien species. He looked past them to see a quarian with her back pressed against the wall. From her size, Clark guessed that she was about his age, maybe a year or two younger.

"Hey!" Clark shouted, getting the three thugs' attention, "Leave her alone!"

"Get lost, kid," the krogan growled, "This bucket-head's ours. You can have her once we're done with her, though I can't exactly guarantee her condition will be great once we're done. Quarian sluts tend not to survive having their suits ripped off and being used for our pleasure."

The quarian girl was shaking like a leaf. She was clearly terrified. Clark, on the other hand, was furious. He knew people didn't trust quarians, but planning on doing something like he was suggesting was unforgivable.

"I said, 'Leave. Her. Alone,'" Shepard said, through clenched teeth.

"Hah! Teach this little punk a lesson!" the krogan yelled.

The human and the turian pulled knives out of their sheathes and started advancing towards Clark. They hadn't been expecting Clark's actions in response. The farm boy ran at the thugs before jumping into the air to flick the human in the side of the head with enough force to send him flying into the wall and knocking him unconscious. When Clark landed on his feet, he dropped to his knees and used the momentum to slide under the turian's sideways swipe before delivering a powerful jab to the turian's groin plates, smashing it and the organs inside easily. Still using his momentum to move forward, Clark came to right in front of the krogan and hopped up so that his stomach was eye-level with the krogan's head and grabbed the krogan's head as he moved up. When Clark came back down, he delivered a powerful headbutt to the krogan that was so strong that it shattered his headplate. He cried out in agony, clutching his bleeding head.

"I'll kill you, brat!" the krogan yelled, swiping at him with one hand while his other clutched his head.

"Not today," Clark said before clutching the krogan's neck and inhaling deeply, sucking all of the air out of the krogan's lungs and making him slip into unconsciousness.

Clark walked over to the quarian, who was cowering against the wall. He held his hand out to her, making her flinch on impulse, likely thinking he was just someone else that wanted to hurt her.

When she looked up to see he was just offering his hand and a friendly smile, she took it, though her hand still shook nervously. He helped her up still smiling friendly.

She looked behind him and yelled, "Look out!"

Clark moved in front of the quarian and turned around to face the turian, who, with one hand, held his broken groin plate, while, with the other, pointed a handgun at Clark from pointblank range. He fired a shot, which impacted Clark's chest, only to cause no damage. Clark grabbed his gun hand with his left and slowly began to crush the turian's gun and hand with seemingly no effort, making him cry out in pain.

"W-what are you!?" the turian muttered through the pain.

"You're worst nightmare," Clark said before he duplicated the same move he used on the krogan and sucked all of the air out of the turian's lungs.

When he collapsed, Clark grabbed the quarian girl's hand and carefully led her past the unconscious thugs.

When they were out of the alley, Clark turned to the girl, "Are you alright? No injuries or suit ruptures?"

She seemed surprised at this, "N-no, I'm fine, but, um, y-you know about suit ruptures?"

Clark shrugged, "I study other species in my spare time. You seem a little young to be on your pilgrimage, so why are you here by yourself?"

"I, um, got separated from my mom and ended up here. We were buying some supplies in the marketplace and we got separated," she said as she wrung her fingers together, "Um, c-could you show me the way back?"

"Sure, by the way, my name's Clark Shepard," he said, holding his hand out.

"I'm Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. It's nice to meet you, Clark. Thank you so much for saving me from those men," she said, grabbing his hand to shake it, her voice telling Clark that she was smiling.

"It was my pleasure, Miss Zorah. May I escort you back to the marketplace?"

"I'd be delighted, Mr. Shepard," she said giggling as she grabbed his hand.

The two began their walk back to the marketplace, hand-in-hand and when they got there, a female voice yelled, "Tali! There you are!" The two looked to see a quarian woman running towards them, "I told you to stay close! Do you have any idea how worried I was!?"

Tali bowed her head, "I'm sorry, Mom. I got a little lost."

The woman then noticed that her daughter was hand-in-hand with a human. "Tali? Who is this?"

"Oh, this is Clark. He helped me, um," she started suddenly being nervous about what to say.

Sensing this and not wanting Tali to relive the incident, Clark said, "I helped Tali find her way back, Mrs. Zorah. She was really turned around when I found her. Not surprising really, a lot of this place looks the same."

"Well, thank you, Clark. I'm glad my daughter seems to have made a friend," the quarian mother said.

"Hey, mom, do you think I could stay with Clark for a little while longer?"

"Well, I don't see a problem in it, if, of course, he doesn't mind."

"No, not at all," Clark said, smiling.

So, Tali gave her mother final goodbye and the two headed off. After a few minutes of walking, Tali decided to ask the question that had been on her mind, "Um, Clark, how were you able to do those things?"

"Well, it's kind of a secret. Only my parents really know about it," Clark explained.

"I promise that I won't tell anyone! I really won't! I, um, how do you humans say it? I cross my head?" she asked.

"Heart," Clark said, "I cross my heart…alright, but you really can't tell anyone, Tali." With that, Clark led her down an alley and, after making sure that no one could see them, pulled her close.

"C-Clark?" she asked, nervously.

"Stand on my feet," he said as he pulled her in to show that he meant it. When she did, he put his arms around her body and told her, "Hang on tight.

"O-okay," she wrapped her arms tightly around him, "N-now what?"

Clark smirked and suddenly they started rising into the air, slowly at first, but before long, rose even more quickly.

Tali squeaked and pressed as tightly against Clark as she could, burying her face into his chest. "H-how i-is th-this possible!?" she yelled over the wind.

Suddenly, they came to a stop and Clark whispered to her, "Tali, take a look."

She peeked out to see to see that they were over the tops of the sky scrapers. The sun made the massive city shine like stares, "Wow," she whispered, "It's beautiful up here."

"Yes, it is," Clark said with a dreamy smile.

"U-um, c-can we get down now?" Tali asked.

"Sure," he replied, before gently lowering them back to the ground.

"Clark, how did you do that?!"

"It might seem crazy, but I want you to believe that everything I'm going to tell you is the truth, alright?" she nodded in response.

With that, Clark began to tell her everything. She was doubtful when he told her that he wasn't really human, but a human-looking alien that becomes stronger when exposed to the light of a yellow sun. Given what she just saw though, she eventually accepted it. The part of the story that she did have problems with was when he told her about Brainiac. Understandably, she was upset when she found out that her savior was carrying around a potentially dangerous AI, but after he explained how Brainiac has helped him and that he doesn't mean any harm, she calmed down. He told her what he could do, where he came from, everything. He even explained to her the one thing he told no one else: the fact that he felt isolated from everyone he's ever met, due to him being different, the last of his kind. Tali told her new friend everything as well, what it was like living on the flotilla, her favorite studies, which were engineering, the problems she's had with her father, and how she was often feeling isolated from the other children due to her father's position. The two spent the rest of their time together on very good terms, due to the two feeling connected by their similar feelings of being outcasts. When they finally had to part ways so Clark could go back to meet his dad, they exchanged extranet addresses, so they could keep in touch, though Tali explained that she'd have to keep it a secret from her father because of his distrust of other species. For the next year, they would speak to one another as much as they could, whenever they could. The two quickly became each other's closest friends. Clark, in secret, also started learning some things about genetics from Brainiac in the hopes of maybe finding a way to help Tali's people with their immune systems. It was one year after he met Tali that Clark's life took a turn for the worst.

He was sitting in class, listening to his teacher when he heard gunshots in the distance and moving closer. Ignoring everything else, Clark moved to the window and looked out. With his superpowerful telescopic vision, he saw batarian troops moving quickly towards the school.

Clark knew there would only be one reason for it, "Slavers," he muttered.

"Clark Shepard! What do you think you're do-" the teacher's lecture was interrupted by the raid siren going off all over the colony, "Dear god, alright, everyone, we need to head to the gym, just like we practiced."

The students quickly got up to head there, but before the first even made it to the door, they heard gunshots and deep voices shouting. A second later, a batarian pushed the door open, armed with an assault rifle.

He smirked, "Well, well, looks like we've hit the jackpot. Quite a few in here look like they'd be good for manual labor and most of these human skanks look like they'd fetch a pretty penny on the sex slave market."

As everyone else looked in horror at the situation that they found themselves in, Clark moved faster than anyone else could follow and made his way to the other side of the room. He used his superstrength to push the batarian so hard he went flying into the wall on the other side of the hall. He quickly scooped up the fallen batarian's gun and finished him off. More batarians appeared but they were cut down before they even had a chance to fire back.

"Come on!" Clark yelled to the people in the class to snap them out of their stunned silence. He led them to the gym, gathering up other people along the way. The gym was already pretty filled up.

After a quick headcount, it was found that the entire school managed to make it to the gym. Clark knew that it wouldn't be that easy though. He looked around the gym, seeing the worried looks of the people, hearing them worry about their families and friends that weren't there, and made his decision.

He turned to the closest teacher and said, "I'm going out there to ensure the batarians don't break down the door. Seal it behind me."

"Wait, are you insane!? You won't stand a chance against their forces!" he insisted.

Clark looked at him with deadly seriousness, "Maybe, but I'm the only one here with actual firearm training, ergo I'm the one that needs to go. If I don't go, then they will swarm in here and get the door open and kill or enslave everyone. At least if I go, then I'll likely be able to at least slow them down long enough for the Alliance to get here. Now, move and seal the fucking door behind me."

He pushed past the teacher and walked out. He heard the door seal behind him and he walked out to the front entrance of the school. He looked in the direction of where he heard more batarians coming from. It was another unit, maybe fifteen slaver soldiers. As he prepared to take on the new forces, his superhearing picked up something that chilled his blood. He could hear batarians heading to his home, the Shepard family farm. Clark was now faced with a choice: if he flew back home, he could stop the batarians, but that would leave the school open to attack and everyone inside would be taken. The choice was painful, but easy.

"I'm sorry, Ma, Pa," he said, with a tears streaming down his face. He opened fire on the advancing batarians. His aim was spot-on and felled fifteen enemy soldiers before his only clip ran out. He hadn't thought to grab more, mostly because he was too pissed off to think of much of anything. When the gun clicked empty, he broke it in half and threw them like javelins, impaling two batarians against a wall. He ran forward appearing as a blur to the batarians. He got in close and began to tear the invading unit apart. He backhanded one, sending him flying through a wall. He used his heat vision to burn the face off of another one. The batarians tried shooting the attacking "human," but their shots just bounced harmlessly off of Clark's body. Clark responded to the attacks by breaking the neck of one with a sharp punch to his face, using his heat vision to burn a hole in the neck of another, and breaking a third's spine with a single stomp. His fires of rage was further fueled by his picking up that his parents had grabbed the firearms they kept in the house and were fighting back against the slavers.

As Clark continued his attack, one of the batarians used his omni-tool to connect to the leader. "Martog! This is Tavrek! We need reinforcements at the school! We're being slaughtered over here!" he yelled.

"Damn! How many defenders?" Martog replied.

"It's just one, but he's not normal! He's tearing us apart! Send everyone! Even the ta-ack!" his plead was cut off by Clark's bloody fist emerging from his ribcage.

Pulling his arm out from the batarian's body, Clark flicked his arm to try and get some of the blood off. Knowing he couldn't do anything, but wait for the batarians' reinforcements to arrive. No matter how much he wanted to, no matter how angry he was, Clark couldn't abandon the school and the people inside, even to save his parents. This made what he heard even more painful.

He heard one of the two guns at the house stop firing, followed by Martha yelling, "John!" confirming Clark's fears. A moment later, her gunfire slowed and he could hear his mother begging for his father to open his eyes. His father didn't respond in any way that Clark could hear, but what he did hear were more feet on the hardwood floor. Clark's mother apparently saw them because she started firing, but only for a few moments before Clark heard an "oof!" along with a hard "thack!" like someone's gun butt connecting with someone's face. He heard something, Clark guessed his mother, being dragged out of the house.

"Any last words?" a deep, no doubt batarian, voice asked.

"Fuck you, Four-eyes," his mother growled. Clark could practically hear her glare.

"So be it," the batarian said to the sound of a gun being cocked.

His mother, then, whispered, so only Clark could hear, "Clark, we love you. Always remember that."

Any further last words were rendered moot when a single gunshot rang out, signaling the end of his mother's life. Tears were streaming down Clark's dirt, ash, and blood-covered face. His feelings of pain and anguish built up until he couldn't contain them any more and he let out a long and powerful yell of emotional agony. He began to sob, the world fading away as the pain of losing his adoptive parents engulfed him.

The world came screaming back when a fired shell hit Clark square in the chest, engulfing the area in smoke, dust, and fire. There were even more of them than with the first group, even a tank. The large batarian force surrounding the tank waited for the dust to clear, so they could see if their target was down.

As the dust began to settle, the batarians saw two small bright red lights in the cloud. Stepping out of the cloud was their target, his shirt completely destroyed and his pants were torn, but he was otherwise unharmed. Clark leapt into the air, to a height no sentient being known could ever match. He landed hard on top of the tank, making it bend in half! Then, he tor the main turret off by the barrel and began to use it as a club against the batarians. Twenty were either crushed or sent flying in a matter of moments. Brainiac entered the fray as well by well by hacking the suits of armor of the batarians, causing them to short circuit and electrocute their wearers. The batarians' weapons from small caliber handguns to grenade launchers all proved useless against the rampaging farm boy. By the time nine-tenths of their number were either dead or dying, the leader was ordering the batarians' retreat, but Clark broke the base of the turret off of the turret he was holding, leaving only the barrel. He threw the barrel like a javelin and impaled the batarian leader on it. He, then, slaughtered the remaining batarians to ensure that none lived to tell the tale of what he could do.

He then walked back to the school entrance and sat down in front of it. It wasn't for two more hours that the first squad of Alliance soldiers showed up. A few vomited at the sight of the carnage, especially since some batarians were torn in half.

The commanding officer walked up to Clark and asked, "What the hell happened here?"

"I killed them, sir," Clark said, remember the military protocols that his father taught him.

"By yourself!?" the officer exclaimed.

"Yes sir," Clark replied.

"How!?"

"By using the skills my parents taught me," Clark said, partly lying, "They used to be Alliance soldiers. Now, would you mind explaining why it took so long for the Alliance to get here?"

The officer bowed his head in shame, "The batarians had defenses so thick that we couldn't break through. All we could do is wait and take potshots at 'em. It wasn't until they started having their aerial defense troops join the land forces that we managed to break through. If it's any consolation, they had to send a lot of their "loaders" to augment the ground forces, so they couldn't lift off in time to keep us from preventing their escape with their captives."

"Well, that's something at least," Clark sighed, "You guys should head inside the school. All of the students and faculty are sealed inside the gym. Now, if you'll excuse me, sir, I need to go home and give my parents a proper burial."

With that, Clark started walking in the direction of his home. The officer was about to say something more when one of the soldiers yelled to him, "Sir, you may want to come take a look at this!"

The officer turned to tell the soldier that he'd be there in a minute, but when he turned back to look at Clark, he found that the farm boy had completely vanished. He looked around for some trace of Clark, but found none. Had he looked up, he might have seen Clark's departing shape soaring through the sky. The officer went over to the soldier that called him earlier, after ordering some troops to evacuate the civilians from the gym and found a batarian impaled to a wall by the barrel of a tank's turret.

"What the hell?" the officer exclaimed.

"And that's not even the strangest part, sir. Take a look at the end of it."

The officer took a closer look at where the soldier was pointing and saw that it was crushed with strange grooves. The officer gently touched it and found that his fingers almost perfectly fit into the grooves, telling him what happened to it. As impossible as it sounded, that kid had crushed it with his bare hand.

When he landed, Clark found the house surrounded by batarian corpses. Walking past them, Clark found his mother on the porch, a single bullet hole in her head along with numerous cuts and scrapes. Inside, Clark found his father with a shot to his chest. Using his x-ray vision, Clark saw that the shot had hit his heart.

Clark took his parents' bodies, carried them to the tree out front, where the swing from his childhood still hung, and buried them beneath the tree's leaves. His parents had never been fans of big funerals, claiming it was a waste of time. After using his x-ray vision to make certain they wouldn't poison any ground water sources, Clark buried them and made crosses with plaques he engraved with his heat vision. They were simple epitaphs, "John/Martha Shepard, Loving Father/Mother and Beloved Husband/Wife." Clark stood over their graves, his tears all used up.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you, Ma and Pa, but I hope I made you proud and continue to do so. When I turn eighteen, I'm going to become an Alliance marine and I'm going to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else," Clark vowed.

The next two years, Clark's only comfort came in the form of Tali's calls. She was heartbroken when she heard her best friend had lost both of his parents, especially after they'd encouraged Clark to actually start this long-distance friendship, something Tali knew most parents wouldn't do. Even though Tali didn't say it, when she heard about the tragedy, she'd wanted to hold her friend close and tell him everything would be alright.

A few months before Clark's eighteenth birthday, Tali appeared on his viewscreen, sobbing. When Clark asked her what was wrong, she explained that she'd been hacking into the Rayya's comm. systems to contact him and keeping it secret from everyone, though it was especially from her father, since he would never allow her to be friends with a non-Quarian. She'd managed to keep it a secret until a few minutes ago. Her father had finally caught her and he was furious. He told her that it wasn't befitting for the daughter of an admiral to be affiliated with a human, especially one that's planning on becoming an Alliance soldier. He told her that she could speak to him one more time and that would be the last time. After explaining this, Tali began saying that she thought she could still hack the communications, bypassing her father's new security measures, but she was interrupted by Clark saying something that she hadn't expected.

"I think he's right, Tali," Clark said solemnly.

"W-what!?" she said, surprised and a little hurt.

"Tali, your people will rely on you for every aspect of life, so they need to trust you. If they find out that you've been secretly communicating with an Alliance soldier, then that trust will be lost."

"B-but, C-Clark, I don't want to stop being your friend!" Tali said, her voice breaking with sobs.

"I know, Tali. I don't either, but this is the way it has to be. That doesn't mean we will stop being friends, though," Clark said before typing a few commands, "I'm sending you a program that I'd had Brainiac make. If you're ever in trouble, use the program and no matter where I am, I will come to your aid. I'll always be there when you need me. I promise. If Fate, Destiny, the Galaxy, or whatever it is that controls the path our lives take decides that we should meet again, I promise you that no one will make our friendship end again."

"Okay, I-I understand," she said, heartbroken. She understood and agreed with his words, but that didn't mean she had to like it, "Goodbye, Clark. I'll never forget you," she said before the she deactivated the terminal.

Clark was sad to see his friend leave, but he felt it was for her own good. He hoped that he'd get to see her again someday, though not because she used that program. On Clark's eighteenth birthday, a few months later, he went to the nearest Alliance recruitment office and signed the form. It was official. Clark John "Kal-El" Shepard was an Alliance soldier.

**A/N: Thanks for reading and please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Reviews:**

**Thorndsword:**

**Yeah, I'll admit that it is pretty clichéd, but I needed something to explain why Clark and Tali were out of touch until the events of the first game and I wanted to include the program that he gave her for reasons that I think will be evident later and that was the best I could think of.**

**Hercules8:**

**First of all, I'd like to say that I'm glad that you're so enthusiastic about my story. Secondly, no, I can't go any faster. Considering all the crap I'm dealing with now, you're lucky it's taking this short amount of time. Lastly, while I wasn't planning on making Shepard like that, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell me what to write. It just really gets in my craw.**

**Kasumi lynne:**

**You may want to look up exactly what kryptonite is.**

**rongladiator:**

**Don't y'all just?**

**Nomad-117:**

**Just reading the first part of you review gave me a headache. As for your other superheroes, well, Superman-based characters will for certain make an appearance, though I won't tell which. I haven't decided on whether or not to make it more of a justice league. I'm leaning more towards no, but if I do include them it won't be until the ME 2 part.**

**Jouaint:**

**Glad you like it.**

**A/N: Please review with any comment, concerns, questions, or constructive criticism!**

Chapter 3:

Soldier Turned Hero

In the four years after Clark joined the Alliance, his name quickly became well-known. At boot camp, he broke every record there was. On the gun range, no matter the distance, he always made a bullseye with an ease that it might as well have been a few inches away from the barrel of the gun. He managed to beat every speed record from the obstacle course to gun dismantling. In sparring matches, he made even the most experienced fighters look like rookies. A number of people attempted to find the secret behind his abilities, especially after word of his actions on Mindoir became known. For the most parts, the results were inconclusive and when they were, they were so abnormal that the people in charge of them were reassigned elsewhere as soon as they turned the results in. Despite his obvious skills, he gained the respect of many of his peers and superiors, due to his refusal to act like any probably would in his position. He never bragged, he never gloated, and he never acted superior to anyone, in fact, he would go out of his way to help anyone that needed it. Even when he was off-duty or on shore leave, it wouldn't surprise anyone who knew him if they found him literally saving cats from trees or helping old ladies cross the street. His fellow soldiers had even taken to calling him 'The Boy scout.'

In battle, he similarly put the safety of others before himself. He was always the first off the landing shuttles and the last to get back on. He would always volunteer for the most dangerous missions and would somehow manage to always come back without so much as a scratch, though no one could ever figure out how, due to his keeping his powers secret. Any enemies he fought tended not to last very long and he managed to capture many of the surviving enemies that he went against. His combative skills are but a part of what made him well-known was his silver tongue, as he became known for being able to diffuse many hostile situations with his words alone.

However, he never forgot the Mindoir attack, the pain it caused him never went away. Most of all, however, he remembered Tali. He wished that Life hadn't necessitated their separation. He didn't regret doing it; he regretted that it was necessary. It was in her memory and the memory of his parents that he'd decided to never let his anger control him again. He would instead control it, use it to his own purposes. He would be the sort of man the galaxy needed him to be and not the one it deserved. He swore he'd do what's right no matter the consequences. His actions impressed the higher-ups enough that in the four years, he was promoted to Corporal and assigned to the human colony of Elysium.

This day, he was off-duty, so he did what he usually did when he had nothing to do: clean his guns and read the reports about the daily planetary information, like transport schedules and any crime reports. Sure, the local constabulary dealt with most of it, but if any of it got serious enough, the soldiers would have to step in, so he liked to keep an eye on it so he could possibly foresee any of it. Granted, this'd be easier if Private Walker wasn't blasting some rock music. Clark was glad that he could decrease his hearing because otherwise the sheer volume of the music probably would bring him to his knees in pain. That being said it was still causing him to develop a splitting headache.

"Walker, turn that shit down!" he yelled.

"What's the matter, Shepard? Not a fan of ancient Earth rock music?" Walker asked as he turned the volume down.

"Not when it's that loud. Besides, I've never heard of whatever band that is."

"It's Three Doors Down, Shep," Walker said. Seeing that the name meant absolutely nothing to Shepard, Walker added, "Have you ever heard the song, 'Citizen/Soldier?'" Shepard shook his head, "It's not my time?" Another head shake. "Kry-"

"Is Shepard in here?" a voice called out from the room, interrupting Walker.

Shepard looked back to see his immediate superior, Gunnery Chief Hudson, walking in. Shepard and Walker immediately stood up at attention, "Sir!"

"As you were, you two," he said putting them at ease, "Shepard, can I speak with you?"

"Of course, sir," Shepard said as he followed Hudson out of the room. Shepard had always liked Hudson. He was one of those older officers that was good leading men on the battlefield, but lacked the skill or the desire to deal with the politics to go very far. He treated his men well. He was stern and tough, but cared about them.

Once they were out of the room, Hudson said, "So, Shepard, when are you due to be back on duty?"

"Noon tomorrow," Shepard said.

Hudson sighed, "Shepard, you've got to get out more. Most of the men that have this much time off would hang out in town."

Shepard shrugged, "I prefer to do something productive, sir."

"Shepard, my boy, you're a good soldier, no one can deny that, but don't make the service your sole purpose in life. Go to a bar, pick up a girl, hell, get into a bar fight; just do something outside of the Alliance. Don't make Clark Shepard the Alliance soldier your sole identity."

"I don't know, sir," Shepard said, not certain.

"Don't force me to make it an order," Hudson said, warningly.

Shepard sighed and held up his hands to signal his surrender, "Alright, sir, I'll go. I heard the men talking about this bar in town. Guess I can go check that out."

Hudson clapped his hand on Shepard's shoulder, "This is for your own good, Shepard." With that, Hudson left.

Seeing no reason to switch out of his casual attire, Shepard headed out of the base and took a transport to town. He wished that he could just fly there, but he knew it would cause others to find out the truth of him, something he couldn't allow. He found the bar easily enough, went in, ordered a drink, and watched the game between the New York Giants and the Demeter Crows. As usual, the Crows were getting their asses handed to them. Shepard had been there for about an hour when she walked in. The woman was clearly not a local. She was gorgeous, so much in fact that practically every guy in the bar stopped what they were doing and stared at the woman. Her hourglass figure, her plump rear, her large breasts, her flawless skin, and her long black hair had practically every guy and even some of the girls drooling. She was wearing tight civilian clothes that further showed off her body. Shepard, however, didn't give her more than a glance. After all, he'd seen a pretty girl before and he had the decency not to stare at each one that passed by.

Unfortunately, a group of men that had clearly been there for a while even when Shepard arrived didn't have the same self-control. One of them made his way to the woman who was sitting at the other end of the bar from Shepard. The man sat next to the bar after drunkenly making his way over to her, which got Shepard's full attention. After all, there was nothing that was more prone to doing something stupid, like someone who's had too much to drink. He used his super hearing to listen in on the conversation.

"Hey, baby, ain't sheen you befer," he drunkenly said, his alcohol-filled self making his words slur. Even though he didn't have a superhuman sense of smell, Shepard could smell the man's breath from where he sat. From the woman's expression of disgust, Clark could tell that she could as well, though to a much greater degree.

"I'm here to meet a shuttle," the woman said, in a British accent, wanting to end the conversation as soon as possible.

"Well, then, I should you the grand tour! Our fers' shtop'll be my plash, home of the mosht comfertble bed!" the man said.

The woman's look of disgust became even more apparent. "I'm not interested."

"Aw, come on, baby, it'll be fun!" the man said, putting his hand on her leg.

She roughly pushed his hand off, "Never going to happen. Now, go away."

This only seemed to infuriate the drunk, "Hey, bitch, why don't you lighten up? I gerantee you'll enjoy it!" he said as he tried to grab her breasts. The woman, however, would not allow this as she grabbed his wrist and squeezed it, breaking it with a loud crack. He cried out in pain as he fell off of his stool. The man's five friends stood up to come to his aid, which drew the attention of the woman enough that the man she'd assaulted managed to get back up and backhanded her.

When the woman came back up, she found Shepard between her and the man.

"That's enough," he said, holding both of them back, "Everyone just needs to take a deep breath and calm down. Let's not do anything we'll regret." Shepard looked back at the woman, "Are you alright, Miss?"

She wiped her lip where it was split, "Yes, I'm fine."

The drunk, however, didn't appreciate being ignored, "Hey, you bastard, get out of the way! I'm going teash that shlut a leshon fer flirtin' wish me and shen breaking my damn wrisht!"

"You have a funny idea of what it looks like when someone's flirting with you, you disgusting perverted drunk!" the woman said.

"Shut up, you fucking shlut! When I'm done teashin' you yer leshon, I'm gonna take ya out back and teash you ter lighten up!"

"Oh, you really shouldn't have said that," Shepard said, "That is the only thing that can anger me." With that, Shepard grabbed the drunk by the front of his shirt and threw him over the bar.

The five friends of the drunk stood up, but were plowed down by a table that had a dark blue aura around it. Shepard looked back to see the woman's hands glowing the same color, showing that she was a biotic. Shepard didn't have any time to be surprised as the five pushed the table off of themselves. Shepard intercepted them and began to fight them with trained martial arts moves, making certain to keep his strength in check to avoid fatal blows. To the woman's credit, she was using a combination of muay thai and karate attacks to deal with her own targets. From what Shepard saw, she was very well trained, easily military level and yet she was clearly a civilian. One of the drunks managed to hit Shepard in the side of his head with a glass bottle, but it did nothing but draw his attention, which resulted in the man being knocked unconscious with a light blow to the neck. Between the two of them, they easily beat the drunks, which wasn't that hard considering people intoxicated weren't really well-known for their combative skills. Once the two defeated the drunks, Shepard gave the bartender a few credits to make up for the mess and he and the woman left in a hurry to avoid trouble with the police.

Once they were a few blocks away, Shepard looked at the woman, checking for any injuries. One of the drunks had managed to hit her with a hit to her face.

"That's going to swell up a bit. We should get you looked at," Shepard said.

"You a medic, soldier?" she asked with a smile.

"'Fraid not, ma'am, but I can patch you up easily enough. Just need a med-kit. You got one in your car?"

"Don't have a car I'm afraid, but there's one back at my hotel room," she said.

"You sure you want a strange man in your hotel?" Shepard asked with a smile.

"I can handle myself," she said, smiling, putting her hand on her hip.

"I noticed," Shepard said still smiling, "Lead the way."

Shepard followed the woman back to the hotel. It was one of the nicer hotels, which surprised him, considering the bar hadn't been one of the more expensive, like he'd expect a woman like her to be in. She had a classy sort of vibe to her, kind of like an ancient Earth aristocrat, like Shepard read about in his history books.

When she went into the bathroom to grab the med-kit she kept in there, Shepard called out, "Hey, I never introduced myself. I'm Clark Shepard!"

"Pleased to meet you, Clark. I'm Mir-Morgan Lowman" she said, as she came out of the bathroom, carrying the medpack.

"Nice to meet you, Morgan," he said as he opened it up.

The medpack contained the typical medical supplies, since only the militaries and hospitals had access to medi-gel. Shepard took one of the gauze pads out. He dipped some of the hydrogen peroxide on it to lightly tap her cut lip, making her wince from the pain.

"Sorry," Shepard said.

"It's alright," she replied, smiling at his caring attitude.

He gave her some painkillers for her before pulling out the cold pack and gently pressing it to her cheek.

"You said you were waiting for a shuttle?" Shepard asked as he packed up the medpack.

"You heard that?"

"Yeah, I, uh, I've got very good hearing. So, where're you heading?"

"I'm going to go meet some friends of mine," she said cryptically.

Figuring it wasn't any of his business, Shepard just shrugged, "So, are you hurt anywhere else?"

"No, I'm fine, but I should check that head of yours. That bottle they hit you with might have cut it."

"Eh, I'm fine," he said, trying to wave her off.

"Don't be foolish," she said as she pushed him on the bed to kneel behind him. She moved his short hair out of the way and, to her surprise, there was no cut or even a bruise.

When he felt her searching his head to see if she could find the injury that should be there, Shepard just laughed, saying, "Told ya I was fine. We Shepards are a very hard-headed bunch."

"I'm picking up on that, but you know I think I did get injured elsewhere," she said with a devious smile.

"Oh? Where's the injury?" Shepard asked, worried.

Morgan grabbed his right hand and pressed it to her left breast, "Right here," she

"I should take a better look," Shepard said with a lustful smile.

"I was hoping you'd say that," she said as she pushed him back down to lie on his back and straddled him before pulling her shirt off, still somehow managing to keep her classy aura, to expose black, lacy lingerie. She leaned down to give Shepard a deep and passionate kiss. She pulled his shirt off to expose his flawless, chiseled chest. Licking her lips as she drank in his Adonis-like body, she thought, 'My god, he's perfect!' She swore to herself that she would give this man a night to remember for the rest of his life and she did, which Shepard returned in kind, though a quite a few noise complaints were placed to the manager of the hotel, whom Morgan had bribed on the way in.

The next morning, Shepard woke up with the sunlight hitting his face. He found that he was alone in the bed. He smelled the sweet smell of coffee and saw a disposable cup of it lying on the table. He picked it up to find a note underneath it. It read:

_Clark,_

_Sorry I didn't wake you before I left, but I thought it was easier this way. I've always been a good judge of people and I can tell that you are a good person, someone that I could possibly fall in love with, something I'd never even considered possible before you. For these reasons and reasons that I must keep secret for your safety, I hope we never meet again. I will always remember you._

_Goodbye,_

_Morgan_

Clark smirked and shook his head. While he wasn't the sort of guy to go around looking for one night stands, Clark hadn't really expected anything to come of last night, not that he would have complained if something did. He'd just followed the woman, hoping to help her and then he was just looking for some fun and comfort. Clark got dressed and took the coffee with him as he headed back to the base.

Two days later, Shepard and his squad were patrolling the town with Chief Hudson leading them. They were marching towards the base after their base. The middle of town was on a hill that allowed them to get an overlook of the base. As they started heading down the hill, Shepard's superhearing picked something up: engines. Big ones.

"Chief, were there any ships supposed to come in today?" Shepard asked.

Hudson didn't really have problems with soldiers speaking out of turn if they felt that it was important. So, he merely turned and said, "No. Why do you ask?"

Shepard merely pointed at the sky, where numerous ships were descending from orbit.

"What the hell?" Hudson muttered, a train of thought that was shared by most of the soldiers.

"Sir," Shepard said, "I recognize those ships. They're batarian."

Just as Shepard said this, the ships opened fire on the base, first focusing on the base's defenses before moving onto the buildings. The surprise attack destroyed the auto defenses almost instantly and the manual defenses were thrown into chaos, so they couldn't mount a decent counterattack.

As the base burned, Hudson yelled, "Shit! We need to get the civvies to the raid shelter!"

He ran to a nearby alarm box mounted on a pole with a speaker on top, opened the box, and pressed the button inside, activating the raid alarm. The effect was instantaneous. Civilians ran out of whatever building they were in and headed down the path behind the troops, which led to the shelter. This proved to be excellent timing as batarians began moving towards the squad while their ships opened fire on the town.

"Take cover!" Hudson yelled and the soldiers moved to do so.

They took up positions and prepared to fire on the invaders. When the batarians got into range of the Alliance troops, the defenders opened fire on the invading four-eyes. The batarians lost a couple of men before they managed to get to cover and return fire. The sheer numbers of the batarians allowed them to continue their advance, despite still being under fire. The Alliance soldiers' situation only got worse when Hudson was hit in the neck by one of the batarians' shots.

"Chief!" Shepard yelled as he ran over to the fallen squad leader. He pressed his hands to the wound in the hopes of slowing the blood before calling out, "Medic!"

The medic, Frost, came over and applied medi-gel to Hudson's wounds, sealing them back up. When Shepard saw Frost had finished his work, but Hudson wasn't moving, Shepard asked Frost about his condition.

"He's fine, sir. He's lost a lot of blood and will be unconscious for a while. Guess that leaves you in charge, Corporal," Frost replied.

Shepard nodded. He was afraid this would happen, fearing that he wasn't ready for a command position yet, but he swore to himself that he'd get as many of his men to safety as possible. As he examined the situation of the men, two were already dead, a shot from one of the ships killed three more, leaving only Shepard, Frost, the unconscious Hudson, and three others.

"Alright, everyone, we're leaving!" Shepard ordered, "We're returning to the Raid Shelter! We can dig in there! Vasquez, Hicks, you two take Hudson! Frost, Apone, you two lead the way and I'll cover the rear!"

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers replied as they moved to follow Shepard's orders.

Vasquez and Hicks each put an arm on their shoulders, while Frost and Apone took the lead. Shepard walked backwards behind them to ensure none of the batarians could attack from behind. He killed a couple of batarians that managed to catch up to them. They reached the bridge that connected the town to the Raid shelter. The shelter was surrounded by anti-air defenses with positions inside that soldiers could use for defense. Unfortunately, it was made with the design for more soldiers defending the area as the sheer number the batarians had would allow them to surround and overwhelm the defenses. Taking this into account, Shepard stopped at the beginning of the bridge.

When the rest of the squad saw that Shepard had stopped, they turned back to him and Frost said, "Sir? We need to keep moving."

"No. Someone needs to slow them down, to stop them here. I'll stay here, while the rest of you go inside and seal the doors," Shepard ordered.

"Sir, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, you'll be facing an army by yourself!" Frost said.

"I'm aware," Shepard said, looking around, "There are plenty of buildings here I can use for cover. I can hold them off long enough for the Alliance to arrive…probably."

Shepard knew his abilities could probably allow him to take on the invading forces, but he wasn't sure that he could prevent the shelter from taking heavy damage, but he was damned sure not going to put his men at risk in a possible suicide mission. If the batarians did manage to get past, the soldiers would be in a much better position to fight them in the shelter. Besides, the raid alarm that Hudson activated also sent a signal to the Alliance.

The soldiers were clearly not liking this plan, but they accepted it. Frost said with a salute, "Good luck, sir. It's been an honor."

The rest of the squad gave Shepard a salute before heading inside the shelter. Shepard turned and waited for the batarian forces to arrive and arrive they did a few minutes later. Shepard was hiding out in one of the ruined buildings when he saw them approach. He aimed his sniper rifle and, using his superhuman speed, managed to make five headshots before the batarians even knew what was happening. He then flew out of his hiding spot to the next building closer, moving at a speed that the batarians' eyes couldn't follow, so they didn't see him move and only preceded to fire on an empty, abandoned building. Shepard fired his now-drawn assault rifle at the batarians, killing another three. He jumped down out of the building and landed on top of one of the tanks. With one hand, he pulled the turret to face one of the other tanks and pulled one of the wires to make it fire at its allied tank, destroying it. He then proceeded to rip the turret off and smash several of the batarian troops. Some of the troops tried to move past Shepard to attack the shelter, but he grabbed the base of the tank and threw it in front of the fleeing batarians, blocking them off from the bridge.

Shepard pulled his assault rifle back out and fired off more shots, killing more of the pirates. The pirates used every caliber of weapon to attack Shepard, but they only succeeded in pissing Shepard off even further. Despite his skills allowing him to tear apart the pirates and his managing to destroy the tanks before they damaged the shelter, the pirates continued to come at him. He used his guns until the last one ran out of ammo. By this point, there were probably a hundred dead batarians on the ground with three destroyed tanks and a destroyed ship, which was blown to smithereens by a tank that Shepard threw at it. Shepard was being pushed back, just by the sheer numbers of the pirates. As he burned the face off of one of the batarians, while Brainiac hacked another one of the tanks to turn it against the pirates.

"Clark," Brainiac said, "I would suggest a withdrawal to further on the bridge."

Clark went to the beginning of the bridge and turned to face the pirates, "This is as much space as we can give, Brainiac, not a millimeter more." With that, Clark got into his fighting stance and the pirates charged again.

Their charge was stopped by a barrage of missiles annihilating the pirates' frontlines. Shuttles came down to land to Shepard's left and right before Alliance troops came out and launched a massive counterattack. One of them tossed Shepard some spare ammo, which he instantly began using. The pirates were quickly pushed back and any survivors were rounded up.

An officer walked up to Shepard, who gave the officer a salute.

"Were you the one that did all of this, soldier?" the officer asked.

'Oh, good, I guess no one saw me using my powers. I just hope this luck keeps up,' Shepard though before saying, "Yes, sir!"

"Damned good work. You're lucky we arrived just when you ran out of ammo," the officer said.

Shepard had to try really hard to keep from smiling, "Yes, sir. The civilians and the rest of my squad, including our injured Gunnery Chief, are in the raid shelter."

"We'll take care of it. You did good, soldier. You're the hero of this colony. I won't be surprised if you get your own squad after this. In fact, I personally promise that I, Staff Commander Steven Hackett, will put your name forward for your own squad."

Shepard smiled. He was going to prove that he could lead men and protect the galaxy, like he swore.

**A/N: Aaaaannnnnddddd that's chapter three! Please remember to review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Reviews:**

**McCabeRz:**

**Hope you continue to think so.**

**parthaker:**

**Well, I don't want to give anything away, but you need to consider a few things: no one even knows what kryptonians are, except for the Reapers, which tend to adapt pretty quick. Not to mention that at the beginning of ME 2, Cerberus has ample opportunity to learn all about his physiology and weaknesses and they have a…distaste for anything non-human.**

**WolfsTrinity-TSO:**

**I have to disagree. I've typically seen just people taking characters from other franchises and plopping them in the ME universe. I don't think I've ever seen one that has another version of Shepard, but that might just be that I haven't seen them yet. As for your issues with Miranda, well, maybe I was too subtle, but the "friends" she was meeting was Cerberus, as in she was just then joining them. Yes, in the Mass Effect 2 time period, she wouldn't make such a mistake, but this was when she was just starting out, so she wouldn't be used to it and could make mistakes. Small ones, but they're there. Like she says in ME 3, nobody's perfect. I'm glad you like my Brainiac idea, let's just say that he'll have some big parts to play in the future.**

**Ahlerot:**

**Glad you like it.**

**ShepardisaBOSS:**

**First of all, love the name because it's true. As for your question, well, let's just say that the ME 2 arc will be the start of having more Superman-centric details than in the ME 1 arc.**

**demonic hellfire:**

**Glad you like it. To be honest, it was either going to be her or Samara and I figured that Miranda would be more interesting.**

**Guest:**

**Yeah, I realized that mistake after I uploaded the chapter. I knew that her voice actress was an Australian, but I thought that the character was from London. Later, I then remembered that it was Anderson that was from London, not her.**

**Hercules8:**

**S'alright. I did kind of take it a bit too hard, but I'm glad you still like it.**

**Nomad-117:**

**S'alright. ;P**

**Thorndsword:**

**While I can understand your issue with hiding his powers, there is a good reason for it that'll be described in the next couple of chapters. A hint is what early ME 1 Ashley Williams, Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, and TIM all have in common. Now, about the boyscout thing, well, in the ME universe, I see a boyscout as being pure Paragon.**

**Jouaint:**

**Glad you like it.**

Chapter 4:

Hero turned Candidate

A year after Clark Shepard singlehandedly turned back the pirate invasion on Elysium, he was positioned on a ship and placed in charge of a squad of his own, just as Staff Commander Hackett promised. He'd even been promoted all the way to Operations Chief. He wasn't XO of a ship or anything, but everyone who knew him figured that it was only a matter of time before he was. He'd gained the reputation of being able to survive even the most hopeless situations, which is why he'd been called to deal with the current situation. In fact, by this point, he'd gone through the courses for N1-5 and he was planning on going through the N6 and 7.

A team of colonial pioneers had disappeared shortly after arriving on a newly discovered world called Akuze. He would be leading a unit of fifty Alliance in the search for them in case it turned out to be something that required more "aggressive" actions, like pirates and slavers. Shepard was to take his unit down to the surface in the first shuttle and secure the landing zone, while scouting the area for hostiles, which brings us to the present.

Shepard and his squad were riding the shuttle from their ship in orbit.

"Hey, Chief, any idea what we'll be dealing with down there?" Corporal Jones asked.

"No clue," Shepard said, "Whatever hit them did it before they had their communications array, so we've got no idea what we're dealing with. Satellite images haven't picked anything up. It could be anything from pirates to a malfunctioning comm. system. There have been reports of pirates in the area, so we're not taking any chances," Shepard turned his attention to the only other corporal in the group, "Corporal Toombs, how much longer until we land?"

"ETA is five minutes, sir," Toombs said.

"Good. Now, everyone, double-check your ammo and make certain to check your fire. There are civilians down there, but we still need to be ready for anything," Shepard said.

"Hey, Chief, if it turns out to be nothing, any chance we'll get some time for a little R&R? I'll bet there are plenty of colonists' daughters that could use some of my special brand of 'reassurance,'" said Private Stewart, the self-proclaimed ladies' man of the squad, earning a collective eye roll from the rest of the squad.

"Sorry, Steward, s'not up to me," Shepard said, "Besides, you remember the last 'girl' you tried to 'reassure?'"

Since the rest of the squad was either there during the incident that Shepard was referring to or had heard the story, they smiled and laughed at Stewart's expense.

"Hey! That wasn't my fault! I'd had a lot to drink and he was really feminine looking!"

Shepard chuckled at that, "Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that!"

A few minutes later, the shuttle landed on the surface of Akuze and the soldiers, led by Shepard, piled out of the shuttle. The Mako tank that came down with them landed just a few feet away. The squad moved down the path from the landing site. The whole area was a dry and dusty plain with enough hills to block their line of sight. When they finally saw the newly created colony, the soldiers knew instantly that the problem wasn't as simple as a broken transmitter. The buildings and the ships the colonists had used had been crushed or torn apart. Some of the walls looked like they'd been melted by some kind of acid.

The squad split up and, after a few minutes, Shepard yelled out, "Anything!?"

The shared response was that there no signs of any of the colonists or any hostiles. It was like they all just disappeared into thin air. After the squad regrouped, Shepard called in to the officer back on the ship, the one in charge of the mission, and told him what they'd found.

"Very good, I'll send the rest of the shuttles," the officer said, smug that another of his missions was going smoothly.

Shepard didn't really like this guy. He was one of those officers that believed he was always right just because he had a higher rank and would crack the millisecond things stopped going his way, not to mention being willing to throw his own men under the bus to save his own ass.

"With all due respect, sir, I think we should hold off on sending them for now," Shepard said, "We haven't found any signs of people leaving the planet, colonist or hostile, so whatever did this is still on the planet and bringing down the other shuttles could cause them to rabbit with any hostages they have."

"Your objection is noted and overruled," the officer said, "Make sure the landing site is clear."

Shepard's teeth were clenched together so tight that they felt like they were going to shatter.

"Yes, sir," Shepard said through his clenched teeth before shutting off the comm.

He began leading the squad back to the landing site when his superhearing picked something up. He gestured for the squad to stop and he looked back the way they came, the direction the sound was coming from.

"Chief? What is it, sir?" one of the privates asked.

Shepard ignored him in favor of continuing to focus on listening for the sound. At first, it sounded like rumbling, kind of like distant thunder, but when he listened more carefully, he realized that it was the sound of something tunneling beneath the dirt, something big, and the worst part was that it was moving towards them and it was moving fast. Thinking back to the damages on the colony and the strange disappearances of the colonists along with what he was hearing, Shepard knew instantly what he was hearing. He'd heard the stories, just like everyone else, but had never seen before, at least until now.

"Back to the shuttle! Double time!" Shepard yelled, which the squad obeyed, though they didn't understand the reason for the order.

Shepard knew that he'd be able to outrun the creature chasing them, but that would involve leaving his men behind and that wasn't an option. So, when he heard the creature catching up, he realized that there was only one option: stand and fight.

"Alright, we'll make our stand here! Everyone, spread out and get ready!" Shepard ordered.

When the squad was in position, Private Smith, who was just to Shepard's left, asked, "Uh, Chief, what are we fighting here?"

Just as he said that, the thresher maw burst out of the ground.

"Does that answer your question!? Open fire!" Shepard ordered, which the squad did without hesitation.

The ground troops' shots were doing seemingly no damage to massive beast. The tank, however, was managing to cause some damage when the thing surfaced to attack, but eventually the maw had enough of it, so it dove beneath the dirt and surfaced beneath the front of the tank, flipping it backwards. It, then, grabbed the tank in its massive jaws to throw it. It exploded on impact. The maw slammed to the ground. Shepard couldn't see how many of the men were killed in the attack, but since he lost track of three of the soldiers, including Toombs, he had to assume that they were dead.

'Shit, our personal weapons aren't causing enough damage. There's only one chance,' he thought before shouting to his squad, "Everyone head back to the landing site! I'll draw its attention!"

The squad instantly followed the orders and headed to the landing site as fast as they could, while Shepard stayed behind, firing into the creature's exposed mouth, where he'd seen it actually cause damage. Once the squad was out of sight, Shepard holstered his rifle and flew into the air to smash into its mouth and burst out of the other side. He landed and, on foot, made his way to the landing site. He arrived just as the last of his remaining squadmates piled in and the shuttles prepared to land.

"Shit!" Shepard yelled before activating his comm. "This is Operations Chief Shepard to all shuttle pilots, do not, I repeat, do **not** land! Return to the ship immediately!"

"Belay that order!" Officer Pain-in-the-ass shouted, "Shepard, what the hell do yo-"

"With all due respect, sir," Shepard interrupted, "Shut the fuck up! This entire area is a thresher maw nest! If they land and more of those maws show up, they'll be slaughtered!"

"Thresher maws are a myth!" the officer yelled.

"Then, a myth just killed three of my men and tossed the mako like it was a pebble!" Shepard replied before addressing the shuttle pilots again, "Listen to me, men, you cannot land! If you do, you will all die!"

The shuttles stayed in mid-air, hesitating, unsure as to what to do. This was enough time for another maw to appear and swat one of the hovering shuttles out of the sky and sending it crashing down. That was enough to convince the shuttle pilots that Shepard's way was the right one, so they performed evasive maneuvers and headed back into orbit. Shepard fired at it to draw its attention from the fleeing shuttles. It spat balls of acid that he managed to dodge, but one went wide and hit Shepard's shuttle. When the space worm retreated back beneath sand, Shepard hopped in the shuttle.

"Take off!" he yelled to the pilot.

The door closed and, rather than the normal hissing sound of the door sealing, there was a loud "thunk!" and an alarm started blaring.

"Pilot, what was that!?" Shepard yelled.

"That hit we took must have damaged the auto-seals! We can't break orbit without them!"

"Any way to fix them?" Shepard asked.

"No, sir! The only way we can take off now is for someone to go outside and seal the door manually! But that's suicide!"

The pilot hadn't even finished his comment when Shepard was climbing out of the shuttle. He quickly got to work and, once he'd finished, banged twice on the door to signal it to take off.

As it lifted off, Stewart came over the radio, "Chief, it's been an honor serving with you, sir."

"Don't count me out just yet. I'm not planning on dying any time soon!" Shepard said before cutting off transmissions with the fleeing shuttle.

Shepard figured his flying ability could take him to the ship, but he had no idea if he could survive in the vacuum and the armor wasn't exactly built to withstand leaving the atmosphere. He also couldn't ask Brainiac, since his birth father, Jor-El, was the only kryptonian that knew the precise details as to the effects of a yellow sun on his kind and he didn't share these with Brainiac.

As he walked away from the landing site, Shepard heard the maw from earlier circling him, like a shark circling a drowning sailor, and three more heading towards him from multiple directions.

"Brainiac, how long do you think it'll take for the Alliance to come and attempt a rescue?"

"Due to the threat the thresher maws represent to the shuttles, the main ship would have to be the one to land, but since the captain figured that this would be a short mission, the ship was only filled for the trip here and the trip back. As a result, they will need to return to base, refuel, and return here and taking the delays that will likely occur as a result of the bureaucracy into account, I would estimate that it will take three weeks for a ship to reach us," the kryptonian AI said.

"Three weeks in a thresher maw nest. Joy," Shepard sighed.

Just then, the maw that had been stalking the stranded soldier burst out of the ground and moved to attack. Shepard quickly pulled out his assault rifle and tried to fire at it, but found the triggering mechanism to be partly melted from when he smashed through the maw's mouth, making it impossible to fire. Since the rest of his weapons lacked the range, power, or firing speed of the rifle, Shepard ran towards the colony ruins, moving at superhuman speeds with the maw hot on his trail. When he got there, he decided that if he couldn't use the weapons he had, he'd make a new one, so he ripped a long strip of metal off of one of the building ruins. Then, using his heat vision, he cut the edges of the tip off to make it triangular-shaped before pinching the edges to give them a sharp edge. The final piece involved crushing the end he was holding to make it into a pommel for his makeshift sword.

Once it was finished, he twirled it a few times to check its weight and he decided to wait for the maws to come.

As the ground shaking increased to signal the creatures' approach, Shepard muttered, "I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing," quoting a line from one of his favorite classic Earth novels, Moby Dick.

Just then, the massive space worms burst out of the ground and charged the seemingly helpless soldier. Shepard lifted into the air and, sword gleaming in the sunlight, charged. Half an hour later, Shepard was sitting on top of one of the ruined buildings, surrounded by thresher maw corpses. As he sat and waited for his pick up, he thought about everything that had happened to him, the people he met, the friends he'd made, the family he'd lost. He thought about his parents, the friends he'd made on Elysium, Morgan, and most of all, he remembered Tali. He wished that he could see her again, but at the same time, he hoped that he didn't, since her needing to stay with the flotilla would be made difficult with his reentrance into her life. When the ship finally arrived, Shepard was sitting on a thresher maw corpse, cooking some of its meat with his heat vision.

A year later, Shepard was now a first lieutenant. The captain from the Akuze mission had attempted to blame Shepard for the mission's failure, but all of the soldiers that had also been a part of the mission stood behind Shepard and the captain ended up disgraced and demoted. Now, Shepard was once again a part of an extremely dangerous mission: an attack on the pirate base on the planet of Torfan. The pirate base was heavily defended due to them purchasing military grade weaponry using their profits from the slave trades. Try as the Alliance might, they couldn't break through the defenses. The ships with orbital bombardment capabilities were distracted by the batarians' AA guns, the Alliance tanks were being destroyed almost the instant they came into range of the Batarian defenses, and the foot soldiers were torn apart by snipers and anti-personnel guns. The people in charge were becoming so desperate that when Shepard offered a solution for the fourth time since the battle began, even the officers too stubborn to listen to anything a "mere lieutenant" could come up with were forced to listen.

"If you can give me a bomb, I can get close enough to the batarian forces to plant it and blow a big hole in their defenses," Shepard said.

The entire room erupted into an uproar, most of them calling Shepard crazy and saying such a plan would do nothing, but waste valuable resources, while the rest, including the now Captain Hackett, supported Shepard.

Eventually, raising his voice, Hackett yelled, "Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" making the rest quieted down, "Shepard has done what we would have thought impossible before. His reputation is well-earned, I can assure you," Hackett said before turning back to Shepard, "Lieutenant, maybe if you explained more, the rest of the officers will be more willing to listen."

"Sorry, sir, but I can't. You'll just have to trust me."

Hackett sighed and turned back to the other officers. "Gentlemen, we've tried everything we can think of, perhaps it's time we tried something unexpected. I feel that we should let the lieutenant try."

The officers, while still not looking happy about it, decided to agree.

"Thank you, sir," Shepard whispered to Hackett.

"Just make sure you don't make me think that my trust was displaced."

"I won't, sir," Shepard said before saluting him, which Hackett returned.

"Glad to hear it. Dismissed."

The next ten minutes were spent attaching the bomb to Shepard's back and, once that was done, Shepard headed out. He ran faster than a normal person could, but not so fast that the batarians couldn't follow him, which is what he wanted. After all, the more batarians shooting at him, the less firing at the other Alliance soldiers. The batarians luckily couldn't see through the smoke kicked up from all of the shots, otherwise they would have seen the rounds that had been tearing through the Alliance soldiers were now just bouncing off of the bomb-toting soldier. He reached the wall quickly enough and escaped the blast that followed. The explosion created a hole in the wall that was easily a hundred meters in length. Almost the instant the fire and heat died down, the Alliance forces started swarming in through the hole.

With their defenses breached, the batarians quickly began to lose ground, especially with Shepard and his squad leading the way. It took a few more hours for the last of the batarians to either be captured or killed. When the troops were gathering back together, Shepard saw something that horrified him. One of the troops in charge of guarding the captive batarians was preparing to start executing them. Shepard ran over and stepped between the soldier and the captive.

"Lieutenant, please move! These things deserve this! After everything these bastards have done, they should be put down like the dogs that they are!"

"No," Shepard said, calmly, hoping to reassure him, "We are better than this. **You** are better than this."

"Sir, you were there at Elysium! You were at Mindoir! These creatures, these monsters deserve to die!" the soldier yelled, angry tears streaming down his face.

"Perhaps, but not this way," Shepard said, "You do this and you're no better than they are. You do this and you will be the monster."

The soldier's gun started to shake as he internally fought over what to do, between his desperate desire to kill the members of the species that have hunted down and enslaved, raped, and murdered so many of theirs and Shepard's words that made a great deal of sense. After a few moments, the soldier lowered his weapon and, with a resigned expression, called one of his friends to take his place for fear that he would go right back to what he was doing once Shepard left. The lieutenant, however, was pleased by the soldier's choice and walked away, not worried about them any more. He knew ahead of time that some of the soldiers had seen the battle as a way to get vengeance on the batarians for their repeated attacks on human colonies. Shepard could certainly understand the desire, but he wanted **justice**, not revenge.

Five years later, Shepard's fame throughout the Alliance was so great that virtually everyone knew his name. In fact, he was made the XO of the prototype Turian-Alliance-Coalition-made ship, the SSV Normandy, under Captain David Anderson, who'd become a close friend in a short amount of time. In the Human embassy on the Citadel, while the Normandy was getting the final preparations, Captain Anderson, Admiral Hackett, and Ambassador Donnel Udina were discussing an important topic when Anderson asked the big question.

"What about Shepard? He'd be a perfect fit."

"I've heard of him, but what do we know about him?" Udina asked.

"He was raised on Mindoir and his parents were killed in a batarian attack. Joined the military the day he turned eighteen. He singlehandedly repelled the pirate invasion on Elysium, saved most of his squad from that thresher maw nest on Akuze before being stranded there for weeks, and he singlehandedly turned the tide at the battle on Torfan. It's because of him that the casualty numbers were as small as they were," Hackett said.

"But have you heard some of the things that they're calling him? "The Man of Steel," "The Lion of Elysium," and "The God of War" are just a few. Are we sure that this is the one that we want to represent all of Humanity?" Udina asked.

"If you can think of a better candidate, then tell us now because I sure can't," Anderson said.

Udina sighed, knowing that there wasn't any better choice, not even among his own preferences, and said, "Alright. Make the call."

**A/N: Aaaannnnddd that's Chapter 4! Please remember to review with any questions, comments, concerns or constructive criticism. Thanks for your time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Reviews:**

**Jason123456:**

**Excellent question. That will actually be answered early next chapter.**

**Guest:**

**Neither. The only references that I made were back in chapter 3, which no one seemed to notice anyway. FYI they were the last 3 Doors Down song that started being named and the names of the soldiers in the squad when the attack happened.**

**Hercules8:**

**Glad you're enjoying it.**

**ELMO-fAN cLUB MeMbER:  
I'm happy to hear that.**

**lilnudger82:**

**Indeed it does, my friend. Indeed it does.**

**Nomad-117:**

**I usually played the games as a Paragon, so that was more suitable for me. Also, I always felt that paragon fit more in with the Shepard character, but that's just my opinion.**

**WolfsTrinity-TSO:**

**Gotta keep ya on your toes.**

**mwjen:**

**Thanks very much**

**demonic hellfire:**

**I figured that would be a suitable nickname for a soldier that can't be hurt by most weapons.**

**Thorndsword:**

**Okay, maybe ****Pure**** paragon's not the right description, but it will mostly be so. Also, if you think discrimination would be the worst that he has to deal with, you're thinking much too small, too…short term, but that'll all be described early next chapter with Jason's question.**

Chapter 5:

A Blast from the Past

A few days after 'the call was made,' the prototype frigate-class ship, the Normandy SR-1, was shooting through space to a specified location. The XO, Lieutenant Commander Clark Shepard was heading out of his office to the CIC.

"The Arcturus Prime relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence," the ship pilot, Jeff "Joker" Moreau, announced over the intercom system.

Passing Corporal Jenkins, who greeted Shepard with a short greeting, and passing through the bustling CIC, hearing Joker report his preparing to perform a mass effect jump, the Commander made his way to the cockpit, which was already occupied by Joker, Staff Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, and their last minute passenger, a spectre by the name of Nihlus Kryik.

Just as he stepped inside, Joker reported, "The board is green. Approach run has begun."

With that, the ship activated the jump and connected to the Relay to catapult the Normandy into the void. For a split second, there was a shake throughout the ship as it hit the relay, but the stabilizers quickly ended the shakes.

Joker began his status check as they sped through the void, "Thrusters…check. Navigation…check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift…just under 1500 K."

The spectre spoke up then, "1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased," before leaving the cockpit.

Once he was out of earshot, Joker muttered, "I hate that guy,"

Kaiden, sitting in the co-pilot seat, looked over at the pilot, "Nihlus gave you a compliment…so you hate him?" he asked in amusement.

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible!" Joker said, before looking at his console, "Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having on board. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid. The Council helped fund this project," Kaiden said, referring to the fact that the Normandy was a joint construction project between the Alliance and the Council, "They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

"Yeah, that is the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story," Joker said in his trademark 'I'm-always-right' tone.

Shepard, deciding to input his two-bits, said, "Joker's right. The Council doesn't send specters on a shakedown run."

"So there's more going on here than the captain's letting on," Joker said, finishing Shepard's thought.

Speaking of the devil, Captain Anderson came over the radio, "Joker! Status report."

"Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid," Joker reported.

"Good. Find a comm. buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime," Anderson commanded over the radio.

"Aye, aye, Captain. Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way," Joker warned.

"He's already here, Lieutenant," Anderson said, much to Joker's embarrassment and everyone else's amusement, "Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm. room for a debriefing."

When Anderson deactivated the radio, Joker turned in his seat to look at the mentioned officer, "You get all that, Commander?"

Shepard nodded, "He sounds upset. The mission must've hit a snag."

Joker waved off Shepard's comment, "Pff. Captain always sounds like that when he's talking to me."

"That should probably tell you something," Shepard said, teasingly as he turned to leave. As he moved closer to the galaxy map, he heard Navigator Pressley speaking to an engineer by the name of Adams through a radio.

"I'm telling you, I just saw him! He marched by like he was on a mission," Pressley said.

"He's a Spectre. They're always on a mission," Adams said simply.

Passing Pressley, who continued to argue with Adams that the Alliance brass was hiding something from them, Shepard heard similar distrustful remarks between Jenkins and Doctor Karen Chakwas, the ship's doctor. Getting Shepard's attention, Jenkins asked if they would be staying on Eden Prime too long after the mission as he wanted some action. Chakwas, however, was nearly as excited at the prospect, saying how action usually leads to her patching up crew members in the infirmary. Shepard, agreeing with the doctor and knowing the danger of Jenkins's attitude, told him to calm down as letting your emotions control you in battle can lead to trouble and to just treat this mission like it were any other, even with the Spectre on board.

Heading into the comm. room to speak with Anderson, Shepard instead found the Spectre waiting for him.

"Ah, Commander, good, I was hoping for a chance to talk with you," the turian said.

"About what?" Shepard asked with a curious expression.

"I'm interested in this world we're going to – Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful," Nihlus said.

"Corporal Jenkins would be better to answer any questions about it, since he's from there, but from what I hear, it's a paradise," Shepard said.

"Yes…a paradise. Serene. Tranquil. Safe. Eden Prime has become something of a symbol for your people, hasn't it?" Shepard's eyes narrowed at his wording, something about the way he said that made Shepard nervous. Nihlus didn't seem to notice as he continued, "Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy, but also protect them. But how safe is it, really?"

"Do you know something that I should know?" Shepard asked.

"Your people are still newcomers, Shepard. The galaxy can be a very dangerous place," he said cryptically.

"I think it's about time we told the commander what's really going on," said a voice behind Shepard, which he turned to see Captain Anderson.

"You mean, how this isn't a simple shakedown run?" Shepard asked, much to the surprise of the other two. He shrugged. "Pretty much everyone on the ship figured it out the instant they found out Nihlus was a Spectre. I mean, really, if this was going to be a regular shakedown run to test the Normandy, the Council would have sent an engineer or something."

Anderson sighed, "I guess we should have expected that it'd get out. We're making a covert pick-up on Eden Prime. That's why we needed the stealth systems operational."

"What's the cargo?" Shepard asked.

"A research team on Eden Prime unearthed some kind of beacon during an excavation. It was Prothean," Anderson said. That got Shepard's full attention. After all, it was a single Prothean artifact that catapulted Humanity into mass effect technology. "Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to handle something like this. We need to bring the beacon back to the Citadel for proper study."

"Obviously, this goes beyond mere human interests, Commander," Nihlus said, "This discovery could affect every species in Council space."

"Again, this doesn't exactly seem like a job for a Council Spectre," Shepard said.

"Nihlus wants to see you in action, Commander. He's here to evaluate you," Anderson said.

Shepard's eyes widened in surprise, "So that's it. I'm being considered for Spectre status."

"That's right, Commander," Anderson said, "The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. Humanity wants a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. We want more say with the Citadel Council. The Spectres represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks," Shepard had to keep himself from performing a nervous twitch at that, "it shows how far the Alliance has come."

Nihlus stepped forward, "You held off an enemy assault during the Blitz single-handed, you survived for weeks in the middle of a thresher maw nest, and it was your actions that led to the Alliance victory on Torfan. You've shown not only legendary courage, but also incredible skill. That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres."

"I'm surprised that a turian would put a human's name forward for something like this. Our races haven't exactly had the best history," Shepard said.

"Not all turians resent Humanity. Some of us see the potential of your species. We see what you have to offer to the rest of the galaxy…and to the Spectres. We are an elite group. It's rare to find an individual with the skills that we seek. I don't care that you're human, Shepard. I only care that you can do the job."

Shepard looked at Anderson, who nodded his support, "Well, I'll do my best not to let you down then."

"I need to see your skills for myself, Commander. Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together."

Anderson then stepped in with the mission details, "You'll be in charge of the ground team, Shepard. Secure the beacon and get it onto the ship ASAP. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the mission."

Shepard nodded his understanding and said, "Just give the word, Captain."

"We should be getting close to Eden-," Anderson started before being interrupted by Joker speaking over the radio.

"Captain! We've got a problem!" the pilot yelled.

'Already?' Shepard thought before saying, "Nothing's ever easy."

"What's wrong, Joker?" Anderson asked.

"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir," Joker reported, "You better see this!"

As soon as he said that, the screen in the comm. room came to life. It showed a view from a helmet camera. An Alliance soldier in white armor was the focus of the viewing. She, for it was quite obviously a woman, and the rest of her squad were under fire. Shepard saw shots from both small arms and artillery explode around the Alliance soldiers. The soldiers were clearly outmatched by the sounds of the officer describing how they were taken by surprise and suffering many casualties. Suddenly, all of the Alliance soldiers stopped firing and stared in shock at something off-screen. The wearer of the helmet that the camera was attached to turned and look at a massive ship that looked like some kind of cephalopod, but only for a second because the distracted soldiers were cut down by whatever enemy they were fighting. Then, the screen goes to static.

"Everything cuts out after that. No comm. traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing," Joker reported, the usual humor in his voice gone completely.

"Reverse and hold at 38.5," Anderson commanded.

Joker, then, made the video message rewind until it showed the ship again. Nihlus and Anderson looked at it in confusion, not recognizing the make and model of it. Shepard, however, found himself under some kind of mass flashback, making it feel like his head was exploding. The sheer pain of it actually brought him to his knees. None of the images and sounds were familiar to him. His mind was assaulted by the sounds of explosions, screams, and death and he saw flashes of bright light, which he took for explosions, and faces of people he didn't recognize. There was one thing that was the center of the memories: a loud, robotic voice saying, "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE YOUR DESTINED DESTRUCTION! YOU WILL PERISH WITH THE REST OF YOUR KIND!"

And just like that, the memory assault ended and Shepard's vision that had been blurred by the pain suddenly cleared up. He looked up to find the two men that were with him kneeling next to him, looking worried.

"You alright, Shepard?" Anderson asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I don't know what happened. When I saw that ship, it just…I don't know, it was like some memories I forgot just swarmed into my mind," Shepard said, standing back up.

"Maybe you should stay behind for this one, Commander," Nihlus said.

Shepard shook his head, "No, I'm fine. I can handle it. Besides, we'll need everyone we can get down there."

Anderson nodded, "He's right. He'll be needed," he said before speaking through the radio again, "Joker, status report."

"Seventeen minutes out, Captain. No other Alliance ships in the area."

"Take us in, Joker. Fast and quiet," Anderson ordered before muttering, "This mission just got more complicated."

"A small strike team can move quickly without drawing attention. It's our best chance to secure the beacon," Nihlus said.

"Grab your gear and meet us in the cargo hold," Anderson ordered Shepard, as Nihlus left the room, "Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up, Commander. You're going in."

Shepard nodded and, stealing one last glance at the frozen image of the massive ship, left the room to do so. A few minutes later, Joker reported that the stealth systems were engaging and they were entering orbit over Eden Prime. After dropping Nihlus off at the first drop-off point, Shepard, Kaiden, and Jenkins were dropped off at the second point. Drawing their weapons, Shepard's squad moved down the path.

Nihlus reported into Shepard a second later, "This place got hit hard, Commander. Hostiles everywhere. Keep your guard up."

They found medium-sized creatures that looked like living sacks of air.

"What the hell are those?" Kaiden asked.

"Gas bags," Jenkins explained, "They're harmless."

The squad continued on the path, doing their best to not let the devastation get to them. They succeeded, but only just. Getting close to the edge of the enemy patrols, Shepard gestured for the other two to crouch down. He did the same and moved behind a rock for cover. He gestured for Jenkins to move behind a rock to their left, which he did. Shepard started hearing something via his superhearing. It sounded like small engines, drone-sized engines. Realizing this, he noticed Jenkins, in his exuberance, had moved ahead. Just then, two drones armed with weapons of a make that Shepard didn't recognize came around the corner ahead of them.

"Jenkins, fall back!" Shepard said, abandoning all attempts to hide his abilities in favor of what he knew to be certain death as he used his superspeed to reach the doomed corporal, grab him by the back of his armor, and throw him behind a rock face that was twenty feet behind Shepard.

The drones opened fire on the squad, most of their shots hitting Shepard in the back. When they stopped to reload, Shepard turned around and, after aiming his assault rifle, destroyed them both with short bursts. When he turned back, Kaiden and Jenkins, who seemed to be unharmed from being thrown by Shepard, rushed over to him looking at him in awe and confusion.

"Commander, h-how-the hell-?" Jenkins started before Kaiden clamped his hand over the corporal's mouth.

"What I think the corporal is trying to ask is how were you able to do things that you did. I mean you **threw **Jenkins like he weighed nothing, you moved so fast that I couldn't even track you, and those shots should have torn through your armor and shields, but you don't even look hurt."

Shepard held up his hand to stop the questions, "I understand your questions, but you need to save them until later," Shepard said before speaking through the radio, "Joker, I know that you saw that as well since you're watching through the helmet cams, but I ask that you don't tell Anderson. I'll do it myself when we get back."

"…Okay, Commander, just don't take too long. If he finds out that I hid this from him, he's going to like me even less than he already does," Joker said, clearly not liking this idea.

"You'll live with it," Shepard said, cutting off the radio before turning to the rest of his squad, "Let's move out."

Deciding to trust the commander, who's already proven to be trustworthy in many of the missions they'd been on together, Kaiden and Jenkins fell in behind Shepard, after they got over the shock of seeing bullet holes in the back of his armor with undamaged skin, as they went to investigate the destroyed drones. Shepard kneeled down next to one of them to look at it and, using his x-ray vision to examine the internal circuitry, found they were exactly what he was afraid they were.

"Shit, these things are Geth," he muttered.

"Geth? What's a Geth?" Jenkins asked.

"AI created by the Quarians hundreds of years ago," Shepard said, "They rebelled against their creators when the Quarians tried to wipe them out. As a result, the Quarians were forced to flee their homeworld and their colonies and have been forced to live a nomadic lifestyle ever since. The strange thing is that they've never moved out of the Perseus Veil until now."

"Wait, if the Quarians have been in such a bad way, then why didn't the Council help them?" Jenkins asked.

"Now, that's the million credit question, but not one that is relevant right now," Shepard said, standing back up and moving down the path.

The three soldiers followed the path and, along the way, destroyed more of the Geth drones until they heard the sound of more gunfire and ran towards it. They found the soldier in white armor from the video from earlier fleeing from more Geth drones. She was unarmed and a few of the shots hit her, but didn't get through her shield. She slid across the ground and picked up a fallen gun, which she turned on the drones. She destroyed them in a showing of expert marksmanship. Shepard's squad joined her and, across the clearing, they saw two Geth soldiers holding a colonist on a strange device and a moment later, the device activated impaling the poor man on a spike. The squad and the soldier moved behind cover as the Geth soldiers opened fire on them. The Alliance soldiers returned fire and, with both numbers and higher ground on their side, killed the two Geth soldiers quickly.

When the last one fell, the woman spoke to Shepard, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, sir?"

"Give me a status report, Williams," Shepard ordered.

Williams seemed to be able to relax at that, finding it easier to deal with than being attacked by an unknown enemy. "Oh, man…we were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since.

"What about the rest of your squad?"

"We tried to double back to the beacon. But we walked into an ambush," Williams said before her expression turned to one of sadness, "I don't think any of the others…I think I'm the only one left."

"This isn't your fault, Williams. You couldn't have done anything to save them," Shepard reassured her.

Ashley said, "Yes, sir. We held our position as long as we could. Until the geth overwhelmed us."

"What are they here for?" Jenkins asked.

"They must be here for the beacon," Ashley said, "The dig site is close. Just over that rise. It might still be there."

"We could use your help, Williams," Shepard said.

Ashley nodded and said, "Aye, aye, sir. It's time for payback."

Shepard nodded and led the squad down the trench, killing more of the geth troopers as they went until they reached the dig site. The beacon was gone.

"The beacon must've be moved," Jenkins said.

"But by who? Our side or the Geth?" Kaiden asked.

"Who knows? We might be able to find out more if we check out the research camp," Ashley said.

"Think anyone made it out of here alive?" Shepard asked.

"If they were lucky. Maybe they're hiding up in the camp," she said gesturing back up the path, "It's just on the top of this ridge. Up the ramps."

As the squad moved back up the ramps, Nihlus reported in saying that he would wait for them at a nearby spaceport. Reaching the top, they passed the spikes that had the colonists impaled on them. As they approached the spikes, the devices activated and the spikes retracted, letting the ones impaled on them. The colonists that had been impaled were now blue, bald, and had wires embedded in their skin. Moaning, they charged at the squad, reminding Shepard of old Earth vids with creatures called zombies. They opened fire on the creatures, who seemed to ignore the shots as they charged until enough damage was done to kill them. Passing the corrupted corpses, they found some doctors hiding in one of the buildings. Upon questioning the frightened scientists, the squad didn't learn much between one not seeing much and the other too shell-shocked to make any sense as well, though the gibberish-speaking scientist did mention seeing a turian, who he called 'the prophet.'

Leaving the scientists behind, they continued towards the spaceport. Suddenly, a gunshot echoed through the area. The team crouched down to make themselves as small a target as possible and waited for another shot in case it was a sniper that missed any of them. When another shot didn't come, the group continued on their way through the trench. Exiting the trench, they saw the massive ship for the first time. As soon as he saw it, Shepard once more found himself under attack from the mysterious memories, but at least this time it wasn't as severe, so he was more or less able to ignore it.

As they moved towards the spaceport, they fought more husks and geth troopers, which were annihilated quickly. Reaching the spaceport, the squad found Nihlus in bad enough shape that medi-gel wouldn't help, due to his brains being blown out. They moved to examine his body, but Ashley stopped them, saying that she heard something moving behind some nearby crates. It turned out to be another survivor, who was hiding from the geth. The survivor explained that another turian that he heard was named Saren showed up and was the one that killed Nihlus by shooting him from pointblank range when his back was turned. The survivor then explained that the beacon was moved to the next platform. After that, Shepard told the dock worker to stay hidden while they left to reach the beacon, planning to return for the Spectre's body after the mission had been complete.

The squad, once more finding themselves under attack from geth troopers, fought their way to the nearby cargo train. These geth were led by a much larger one with a stronger shield.

"Shit, okay, you guys focus on the smaller ones and I'll take on the big guy," Shepard said as he ran forward, moving from cover to cover.

The rest of his squad shot down the troopers while Shepard ducked under the destroyer's aim and he slid between the large geth's legs. He climbed onto its back and, pulling out his shotgun, shot the destoryer's head clean off. Once the geth were dead, Shepard gestured for his astonished squad to follow him as he went to the front of the train, where he flipped the switch to activate it and take them to the next platform. When they reached the platform, however, they found something that chilled their bones: demolition charges. The team, realizing the implications of them, moved quickly to reach the bombs so Shepard could disarm them, while his three subordinates gave him cover from the geth guarding the bombs.

Once they managed to deactivate the last of the bombs, the four Alliance soldiers continued to the next platform, killing more of the geth soldiers as they went, the synthetics proving no match for the squad. They kept fighting until they reached their destination and their designated cargo: the Prothean beacon. However, it didn't look like the picture that they saw on the ship. It was glowing light green. Turning away from the beacon, Shepard called in to Anderson to tell him that they'd reached the beacon, while the rest of the squad was examining the beacon. Ashley, however, got too close to it, when everyone else's attention was elsewhere, and seemed to be being pulled towards it. Shepard saw this and ran to her rescue, pulling her out of the beacon's grasp, but got caught himself. For all of his strength, Shepard couldn't pull himself out and was being pulled closer to the beacon. He was pulled into the air and his mind was assaulted by flashes of images and sounds, none of them making any sense. The mental attack felt like someone was twirling a red-hot poker around in his brain. Suddenly, the beacon exploded and threw Shepard back. Then, Shepard's world went dark.

**A/N: And cut! That's Chapter 5, everybody! Please review with any questions, comments, constructive criticism, or concerns that you might have. Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Reviews:**

**Guest:**

**Glad you like it. I'm not really worried about him being overpowered, though I've got some curveballs lined up for him. I hope you continue to like it.**

**czwisler777:**

**Glad you like it, but it'll be a while before he learns his full power.**

**Nomad-117:**

**Dude, your comment seriously made my day. I'm glad you like it and hope it continues.**

**Tormound:**

**That might be the case, but since he doesn't know the full extent of his power and the Reapers will be best able to counteract his abilities, he might not be as effective as you might think. Not right off the bat anyway.**

**Hercules8:**

**Pleased to see you still like it.**

**Ahlerot:**

**Thank ya kindly**

**ero-sennin56:**

**Yes, I'm aware that there is naturally occurring kryptonite, but no one that faces Shepard would know their effects on him, not right away anyhow, but I'm glad you're liking the story.**

**Jouaint:**

**Thanks.**

**A/N: Alright folks, this one's going to be a bit of a short chapter compared to the last one. This is mostly because I just wanted this one to focus on Shepard's heritage coming to light. Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.**

Chapter 6:

Coming Clean

As the massive ship that attacked Eden Prime sped through space, a single asari moved through the corridors to reach the main hub where a single being was sitting in the captain's chair.

"We identified the ship that touched down on Eden Prime. The Normandy. A human Alliance vessel," the asari said, in a straight and militaristic posture, either not noticing or ignoring the twitch of the turian in the chair when he heard the species as she continued, "It was under the command of Captain Anderson. They managed to save the colony."

"And the beacon?" the turian said, cutting off the asari's further words.

"One of the humans may have used it," she said, making the turian jump up in a roar as he knocked over tables and threw things, while the asari stayed still, not moving even when the turian grabbed her by the face to bring his face close to hers.

"The human must be eliminated," he commanded, finally calming down and returning to his seat.

Meanwhile, back on the Normandy, Shepard was beginning to gain consciousness.

A voice he recognized as belonging to Chief Williams could be heard, "Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think he's waking up."

Shepard, still groggy and his head pounding like a drum, sat up on the medical bed he was laying on to find that he was back on the Normandy.

Doctor Chakwas, the ship's medical expert came to speak to him, "You had us worried there, Shepard. How are you feeling?"

"A bit of throbbing, but nothing too serious. How long was I out?" he asked.

"About fifteen hours. Something happened down there with the beacon, I think," Chakwas said.

"It's my fault," Ashley said, deciding to speak up, "I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way."

Shepard nodded, remembering the events, but decided to reassure her, since he truly didn't blame her for it, "You had no way to know what would happen." He completely missed the small smile that graced Ashley's lips for a few moments.

"Actually, we don't even know if that's what set it off," Chakwas said, "Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out."

When Shepard looked to Ashley questioningly, she explained, "The beacon exploded. A system overload, maybe. The blast knocked you cold. The Lieutenant, the Corporal, and I carried you back here to the ship."

"Appreciate it," Shepard said, again missing Ashley's pleased smile and the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks.

"Physically, you're fine. But I detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming," Chakwas diagnosed.

"I saw-I'm not sure what I saw. Death. Destruction. Nothing's really clear," Shepard said.

"Could it be that it was connected to whatever happened to you before the mission? The Captain said that you were brought to your knees by some repressed memories that suddenly came up," Chakwas said.

"No, I don't think so," Shepard said, "What happened before was just memories, but this time it was like, I don't know, like it was trying to communicate with me, like it was a message of some kind."

"Hmm. I better add all this to my report. It may—Oh, Captain Anderson…and Corporal and Lieutenant," she said seeing them enter the med bay.

"How's our XO holding up, Doctor?" Anderson asked.

"All the readings look normal. I'd say the commander's going to be fine," Chakwas explained.

"Glad to hear it. Shepard, we need to speak to you…in private," he said, looking at Chakwas and Ashley to send a silent message.

Ashley saluted him, getting the message, "Aye, aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me." Ashley and Chakwas left to give the men room.

"Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard, Commander. You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, just a headache really," Shepard said.

"Good," Anderson said before speaking into the speaker, "Joker, can you hear us?"

"Yes sir," the pilot replied still in the cockpit, "I've got everyone else out of hear, so no one'll hear this."

"Alright," Anderson said before turning back to Shepard, "Now, the Corporal, the Lieutenant, and Joker tell me that you've got something to tell me."

"Yeah, this will seem a little far-fetched, but hear me out," Shepard said to which everyone nodded, "Okay, the thing is…I'm not…human," Shepard held up his hand to stop the exclamations in shock, "I **am** the Commander Clark Shepard that you've all known and I am the one that was raised on Mindoir. The only thing that's different from what you know about me is my species."

"What are you then?" Jenkins asked.

"My species was called 'kryptonian.' I was born on the planet Krypton," Shepard said.

"Wait, 'was?'" Joker asked, "Why are you using the past tense, Shepard?"

"Because my planet was destroyed and my people made extinct by an unknown, but devastating calamity. I only managed to survive because my birth parents put me in a prototype escape pod that got me off the planet before it exploded."

"How do you know all of this, Shepard?" Anderson asked, "You make it sound like you were really young when your home planet exploded."

"I was young. I wasn't even a year old when it happened, but my parents didn't want me to lose the knowledge of my people so they put a database into the pod they put me in," Shepard partly lied. He figured it'd be best not to tell them about Brainiac at this point in time, due to him being an illegal AI and Shepard felt it was best to only drop one proverbial bomb on them at a time.

"What I want to know is how you managed to keep this a secret all these years," Kaiden said, "I mean, when I joined the Alliance, I had to go through all kinds of tests so they could look at my physical fitness and a whole bunch of other stuff."

Shepard shrugged, "My body is formed and shaped so close to a human's that it would take an extremely close examination of my DNA to see the difference. I hacked and altered any tests that were performed that might have seen that difference," he partly lied, since it was actually him and Brainiac working together that hacked them.

"But why would you do that? Why not just let people know that you're an alien?" Jenkins asked.

"Jenkins, I was raised in the aftermath of the First Contact War. People distrusted and hated aliens. If I exposed myself, I would have been lucky if I was captured and interrogated."

"Come on, Commander, surely it wouldn't be that bad!" Jenkins said.

"This sort of situation has happened before, Corporal," Shepard said. Seeing his confused expression, Shepard asked, "How much do you know about mid-twentieth century Earth, Corporal?"

"Not much. Why?"

"During that time, there was something called the Cold War going on between pretty much the two halves of the world were divided, each side led by a superpower and each side following a different belief. It was called the Cold War because the relations between the two leading powers was icy cold, but at the same time, like a powder keg because they were at each other's throats and detested the beliefs of the other, meaning all it would take was one conflict to throw the whole world into a new world war. What the people of the West feared the most was for agents of the East to infiltrate their country and take them apart from the inside out. People turned against their neighbors in belief that they followed the "enemy's" beliefs," Shepard said.

"I don't understand. What's your point?" Jenkins asked.

"It was the same after the First Contact War. People of the Alliance extremely distrusted the alien species, but they didn't fear infiltration because the alien species could never pass for human. What do you think would happen if the people of the Alliance found out that there was a species that could so easily pass for human?"

Jenkins's eyes widened when he realized what Shepard was getting at, "There'd be chaos."

Shepard nodded, "That'd be the least of it. People suspected of being inhuman would be taken into custody and interrogated. Then, there are those that hate the nonhuman species still. There would likely be those who would use my existence to start another war. I could never allow that."

Anderson nodded his understanding, "So, Shepard, does your species have any special abilities?"

Shepard nodded, "Yeah, my body's kind of like an organic battery. My body stores the energy of a yellow sun and, with enough power, I'm strong enough to lift several tons, run fast enough to outrun a shuttle, am durable enough to withstand armor-piercing rounds without sustaining so much as a bruise, and many other powers. My personal favorite is that I can fly."

"What? You can fly, Commander?" Joker asked. The others were just as surprised.

"Yes, I can," Shepard said in a matter-of-fact tone, like it was no big deal.

Anderson got over the surprise first, "Okay, Joker, Corporal, Lieutenant, there's no reason to distrust him. He's never given us any reason not to, so I want you all to keep this a secret for now. Now, is there anything else you need to tell us?"

"Just that I think I saw the ship that attacked Eden Prime before. I saw it in the memories I experienced before the mission. I think it was there when Krypton was destroyed," Shepard said.

"What about the beacon? Did you get anything from it before it was destroyed?"

"Yeah, I think it was some kind of message, though I couldn't make heads or tails out of it," Shepard said.

"Very well, the others told me about the survivors that you found, so I know all about Saren," Anderson said. Shepard couldn't help but notice the venom in Anderson's voice when he said the name. "We'll need to explain all of this to the Council, so we're heading there. I'll have the ambassador get us an audience with them. Hopefully they'll revoke Saren's spectre status. We should be reaching the Citadel in a few hours, so you should rest up until then."

"Yes, sir," Shepard said, saluting his superior officer, who returned it and left.

Joker decided to speak again, "Uh, hey, commander?"

"Yeah, Joker?" Shepard asked.

"For the record, it doesn't much matter to me if you're some kinda superhuman. You're still our commander, so we're behind you," Kaiden and Jenkins nodded in agreement.

"Especially after you prevented me from being turned into swiss cheese by those Geth drones!" Jenkins added.

"That being said I do have one request, Shepard," Joker said.

"Uh, okay, what's up?" the kryptonian commander asked.

"Just that you don't lay any eggs in my stomach while I sleep," Joker laughed.

Kaiden, Jenkins, and Shepard started laughing at his joke, "I'll try to restrain myself!"

With that, Joker hung up and the three separated. Shepard headed for his quarters.

Upon reaching his quarters, Brainiac spoke to him, "Kal-El, I should inform you that the first protocol has been reached and I am now able to access new information."

"What? What information?" Shepard asked, surprised, since it had been years and not a single protocol had ever been activated.

"It appears to be a message from your father. Would you like me to play it for you?"

"Yes, please," Shepard asked and Brainaic activated his omni-tool to bring up a screen. On it, a man that looked a lot like Shepard, save for a few minor differences. There was no doubt in his mind that this was Shepard's biological father.

"Hello, son," the man's image said in kryptonian, "I'm recording this in case neither your mother or I manage to survive the calamity that will soon come to Krypton. This calamity will spread to the rest of the galaxy and will result in its destruction. This calamity is the Reapers. I don't know how much you might know about them, but Brainiac's first protocol wouldn't have activated if you hadn't been present on the same planet as one of their ships. I can't afford to go into enough detail just yet, but what you need to know is that they are an army of sythetics that have existed for millions of years. They've, for whatever reason, have been the reasons for the extinction of every major civilization every 50,000 years. I wish I could tell you what they are capable of, but I only have thousand-year-old rumors. Regardless, I've put some protocols in Brainiac that should help if these rumored abilities are accurate. Just remember, always do what you think is right, keep your wits about you, and even though I didn't have the chance to see you grow up, I know you've made me proud."

With that, the image of his father disappeared from the screen. Shepard felt something wet hit the back of his hand. He looked down to see it was a tear. He touched his face to find tears streaming down his face. He hadn't even realized that he was crying until then.

"Kal-El?" Brainiac asked.

Shepard wiped his eyes before looking at the three dots symbol on the screen on his omni-tool. "What is it, Brainiac?"

"I have access to another message if you are emotionally able to handle it," the AI said, as worried as he was capable of.

"Go ahead," Shepard said, before another screen came up, this time showing a woman, who also spoke in Kryptonian.

"Hello, Kal, I guess you probably don't recognize me, since if you watching this, then I died in the cataclysm that your father says is coming to Krypton. My name is Lara Lor-Van and I am your birth mother. I know life was likely not easy and I wish I could be there to help you, but I know your father too well. When he speaks of the cataclysm that is to come, I know it will likely lead to many deaths. I can hear it in his voice. I'm pleased to know that, if you're watching this, one of those lives lost was not your own. I don't know what troubles you've suffered, what dangers you've been forced to face, but I know you will have grown up to be a great man, one that your father and I would be proud of. You are your father's son, after all. Goodbye, my dearest Kal. Know that I will watch over you from the next world and that I love you. Please stay safe."

With that, the image vanished and Shepard now had tears flowing from his eyes again. "Thank you, Brainiac," he said, somehow managing to keep his voice steady despite his sorrow.

"Of course, Kal-El," the AI said waiting for Shepard to calm down before he asked, "Kal-El, what should we do with this information?"

"For now, we do nothing. They won't believe us without hard evidence and we can't give them the recording without exposing you, an illegal AI. What makes things worse is that this Saren person is likely working with the Reapers and the Geth if he was on Eden Prime with that ship," Shepard said, "And if he's a Council Spectre, then he's even more dangerous."

"Your logic is sound, Kal-El," Brainaic said, "You should be cautious as it is likely that the Geth will not be his only allies and he may try to eliminate you."

Shepard nodded in agreement before shutting off his omni-tool and leaving his quarters. He introduced himself to Chief Williams. She was eager to get back into the field in hopes of getting some payback for the death of her squad, though she was certain to explain that she wasn't going let it get in the way of her doing her job. Getting a little background information from her, Williams told Shepard how her military career was always difficult because her family had been disgraced by her Grandfather's surrender at Shanxi. In fact, she figured that was why she was assigned the shitty assignment to be positioned on Eden Prime. Shepard assured her that he didn't feel that the actions of ancestor should transfer to her and will not act as such. Williams thanked him for it before Shepard went down to the armory to check his equipment, something he did to relax, and repair his armor for what was likely the hundredth time in the past three months. As he worked, he found himself going over the memories of his life again, from Mindoir to Elysium to Akuze to Torfan. He remembered his friends, his family, and, especially, Tali.

Meanwhile, on the Citadel, a certain purple-suited quarian came out of the elevator on the Citadel. She wrung her fingers together nervously. Her suit had sealed up the wound in her side and the painkillers kept the pain at bay. She'd recently found some interesting information in a Geth memory core and trouble's been biting at her heels like a ravenous varren for every second afterwards. It had resulted in her losing a good friend. She needed to find someone to take this information to who can use it in the right way and then get to safety. Her first thought was of a single man that she knew from her childhood and the program he gave her, but she quickly shook her head to rid herself of that thought.

'Damnit, would you forget him!?' she thought, 'He probably doesn't even remember you! He's a war hero for Keelah's sake! Besides, he could be on the other side of the galaxy for all you know!'

Those thoughts were enough for her to bring her back to the present. She first needed to get her wound taken care of, then, maybe she could find someone that could use this information she had to hurt the people hunting her and were directly and indirectly responsible for her friend's death. Tali'Zorah was going to find a way out of this problem and get on with her Pilgramage and maybe, just maybe, see the man that had haunted her dreams since their lives went on different paths. She hoped for so much as a passing glance, but first things first.

**A/N: And there's chapter 6! Thanks for reading and please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.**


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